The VonFrederick

Tempus  

June 2006 Volume 3 Issue 6

  Feature Article:

“Déjà vu” Part II

By George A. Torres, MBA, Law Enforcement Specialist

In May’s newsletter article, “Déjà vu” I examined my early years and the heavy saturation of liberal propaganda imposed by the liberally entrenched public education. As an example of propaganda and history rewritten or ignored, versus an objective review of historical events, the teachings of hatred for President Richard Nixon were analyzed. The phenomenon was discussed beyond the liberal talking points given by so-called educators of the day.

Another explanation for the hatred for Nixon beyond the popular liberal talking points, like Nixon was a crook or responsible for “Watergate”, was his involvement in the demise of Alger Hiss, advisor to one of the liberal deities President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hiss was suspected of being a communist spy and a pivotal influence in FDR’s capitulation to Stalin’s demands for post-war dominance in Eastern Europe. 

Was Hiss a communist spy? Maybe. Did Hiss influence President Roosevelt to cave to Stalin’s demands at Yalta? Maybe. Or could it be that Alger Hiss and FDR had more in common with Stalin than the conservative Winston Churchill? There is substantial evidence to support this theory as well. At least enough to support an objective analysis instead of a failure to even mention. Alger Hiss was a socialist, as was FDR and most of his advisors. One of FDR’s advisors, Armand Hammer, had close ties to Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin’s communist government. Of course the failings of many of FDR’s foreign policies could be attributed to several complex issues, but the whole Hiss affair sheds light on these failures. Facts and reality that liberals do not want exposed and analyzed.

The point is that liberal “educators” and the monopolized liberal media of the time, in complete dereliction of duty to inform, refused to reveal any of these theories. Instead of being objectively educated and informed, my youthful mind craving knowledge, trusting the integrity of academia, was duped. This is just one instance in an extensive ocean of examples. 

Take the Vietnam War. Liberals minimized as irrelevant the argument that the Vietnam War was fought to prevent the spread of communism. Liberals either conveniently dismissed, or refused to link, the millions of people murdered under the Southeast Asian socialist or communist regimes or the subsequent poverty and oppression suffered by the people to the removal of the American influence after politicians lost the Vietnam War.

Now thirty five years later one looks around at current events, the War on Terror, threats in the Middle East, Iraq and Iran and “déjà vu”. While America is facing an enemy that wants to destroy us, what do we get from liberals? Misinformation, outright lies, slogans and hatred. Variations of ‘Bush lied and people died’. Bush lied about WMDs. The Iraq War is for big oil and Halliburton. No objectivity, avoidance of any semblance of truth or facts and no critical analysis; just a rehash of old liberal slogans and propaganda. Some things never change.

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Will Iraq be the Algeria of the US military?

By Eric Chevreuil, Retired Captain, French Military

A summary of an article by Eric Chevreuil published in the May-June 2006 edition of Armor, the oldest US military publication (www.Armor.com)

"Iraq has no jungle and many urbanized areas. What is happening in Baghdad is similar to the battle of Algiers. Despite using many innovative tactics in counterinsurgency and getting the upper hand over the FLN, the French ended up alienating the local population and losing the war politically. This is what America has to expect". 

Colonel Andrew J. Bacevich, US Army, retired, Los Angeles Times:
Asymmetric warfare

The French war in Algeria inspired the basis on a new "anti-occident" strategy largely rooted in Mao and Sun Tzu writings, and later labeled as "asymmetric warfare." 

The Algerian terrorists/insurgents of the National Liberation Front (FLN), in the name of its "legitimate" revolution, resorted to terror against the enemy and their own native population, bloody purges within its ranks, torture, executions, mutilation, kidnapping, terrorist tactics, bombings, extortion, disinformation, and sabotage, both in Algeria and France, against soldiers and civilians. 

At the same time, the slightest morally reprehensive or illegal act from the French forces was fully exploited to the full extent by the Parisian FLN disinformation apparatus. Eventually, the media would end up echoing the alleged or documented atrocities committed by the army of the Republic, soon followed by the rest of the world and international organizations. Finally, that sort of moral blackmail ended up paralyzing the government and scaring politicians and military leaders into inaction for fear of scandal.

In his book, "Asymmetric warfare or the defeat of the victor" (2003), Jacque Baud states that the media is the major weapon of the terrorists. The Brazilian author and philosopher Olavo de Carvalho have also echoed this theory when he said that disinformation, as a weapon recently became the most pervasive action of the media. 

What happened in Algeria was really similar to the current conflict in Iraq, both on the military battlefield and on the media battleground. Asymmetric warfare at its best is still applied today. In order to function, that warfare needs to achieve the "brainwashing" of the public so that "it won't even detect the inborn immorality of the so-called moral requirements demanded from one of the parties while granting the other an indifferent and accomplice silence for its violation of the same requirements" (Olavo de Carvalho).

Far from being an apologist for the Algerian war famed torture and local French civil and military rebellion, this topic tries to show how difficult it is for a legitimate democratic state, held to higher standards by its own rules of law and openness, to fight a ruthless enemy that does not respect any moral standards nor international rule in the name of the adage: everything goes for the revolution. 

When Colonel Andrew J. Bacevich declared that "Indiscipline, lawlessness and the excessive use of force will not guarantee victory in Iraq; indeed, the reverse is true", he basically and wrongly referred to the darkest aspects of the Algerian war to characterize it. On top of that, he even quoted an American soldier that told the Post, "It's a little like the French colonel in 'The Battle of Algiers.' You're all complaining about the tactics I am using to win the war, but that's what I am doing - winning the war".

In Algeria, indiscipline, lawlessness and the excessive use of force was the act of the few empowered by a succession of desperate government that first incited the violence, then conveniently ignored it before burying it. The majority of the 1.7 million of servicemen that fought and died for 8 years served admirably well and with honor the cause that the democratically elected government of France ordered them to defend: the preservation of what was perceived as its "territorial integrity." Innovative and traditional military and psychological tactics were extensively used to counter the ferocious insurgents. Sure enough, the torture and summary executions performed by some in the French side are the only thing history remembers from this conflict. Asymmetric warfare at its best, selective memory for those that conveniently forgot the bloody tactics used by the FLN to get the power and later, to keep it.

The war in Algeria was a total war, the first asymmetric conflict that killed hundred of thousands of people, mostly among the civilian population that was the "water for the fishes," the hearts and minds French troops and the FLN were fighting for. The conflict spilled into neighboring countries all the way to Egypt and as far North as France and Paris.
It was a dirty war by all standards, closer to a civil war than to a regular colonial war, with its absurdities, horror, treasons, cowardice, and extreme self-righteousness from both parties.

For history, always conveniently re-written by the winners, it is a colonial war won by the oppressed Algerian people, a conflict that almost destroyed the colonial French republic and that "brought victory and dishonor" to its Nazi-like armies (vision the educative movie "The Battle of Algiers" or "Lost command" with Anthony Quinn)). 

For historians, it was a dirty conflict where one camp was held by the International community to higher standards than the ruthless and ferocious enemy it was fighting. 

The chapter of these dark times is not even closed yet and the debate about confessing the institutionalized use of torture in Algeria rages in France, brought back to the fore by the former "carriers of the FLN", the various French celebrities that sided against their own country during the conflict, carrying messages back and forth to the "insurgents". Again, Algeria and its past FLN administration are not even requested to revisit the horror and the mass murders they were responsible for. Certainly, a joint recognition and apology would finally put an end to this drama that has hurt and still hurts French and Algerians generations.

As far as the current war in Iraq goes, even in its consequences, it is not likely to become another Vietnam. Iraq is turning out to be more like a US military Algeria, something that is going to deeply affect the Army, its leadership, its doctrine, its training, and the way it will be perceived, far beyond the lifetime of the current decision makers in Washington.

Here is a book you might want to get:

How Democracies Lose Small Wars : State, Society, and the Failures of France in Algeria, Israel in Lebanon, and the United States in Vietnam

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521008778/sr=8-7/qid=1148484078/ref=sr_1_7/104-7815956-2453553?%5Fencoding=UTF8

.

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The audacious scope of financial chicanery at Enron galvanized the government to crack down on corporate malfeasance, a pursuit that ultimately brought low many high-flying businesses, prompted Congress to pass the Sarbanes Oxley corporate governance law, and culminated with the convictions of former chief executives Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling. Many believed that it would have never happened. How, people are asking, can people with so much disposable wealth get involved in such risky schemes to produce even more?

There are as many explanations for white-collar crimes as there are white-collar crimes. Many offenders feel free to engage in business crimes because they can easily rationalize their effects; they are convinced that their actions are not really crimes because the acts involved do not resemble street crimes. For example, a banker who uses his position of trust to lend his institution’s assets to a company he secretly controls may see himself as a shrewd businessman, not as a criminal. 

Some business people feel justified in committing white-collar crimes because they believe that government regulators do not really understand the business world or the problems of competing in the free enterprise system. Even when caught, many white-collar criminals cannot see the error of their ways. For example, one offender convicted in a major electrical industry price-fixing conspiracy categorically denied the illegality of his actions. “We did not fix prices. I am telling you that all we did was recover costs” he said. Some white-collar criminals believe that everyone violates business laws, so it is not so bad if they do so themselves. Rationalizing greed is a common trait of white-collar criminals.

Greed is not the only motivation for white-collar crime; need also plays an important role. Executives may tamper with company books because they feel the need to keep or improve their jobs, satisfy their egos, maintain an outside “girlfriend”, or send their children to Ivy League colleges and universities. Blue-collar workers may pilfer because they need to keep pace with inflation, need to survive, or buy a new car. According to Donald Cressey, embezzlement is caused by what he calls a “non-shareable financial problem.” This condition may be the result of offenders living beyond their means, perhaps piling up gambling debts; offenders feel they cannot let anyone know about such financial problems without ruining their reputations. Offenders use these and other rationalizations to resolve the conflict they experience over engaging in illegal behavior. Rationalizations allow offenders’ financial needs to be met without compromising their values.

There are a number of more formal theories of white-collar crimes. The corporate culture view is that some business organizations promote white-collar criminality in the same way that lower-class culture encourages the development of juvenile gangs and street crime. According to this view, some businesses cause crime by placing excessive demands on employees while at the same time, maintaining a business climate tolerant of employee deviance. New employees acquire the attitudes and techniques needed to commit white-collar crimes from their peers through a learning process. Newcomers are encouraged to believe that “greed is good.”

According to the self-control view, the motives that produce white-collar crimes are the same as those that produce any other criminal behavior: the desire for relatively quick, relatively certain benefits, with minimal effort. According to this view, white-collar criminals have low self-control and are inclined to follow momentary impulses without considering the long-term costs of such behavior. Where do you fit in? Search deep inside of your soul. Have you ever committed a white-collar crime? If not, what has stopped you? Are you being truthful with yourself? How much different are you from Ken Lay? 

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There are two forms of controls in an organization: internal and external. Internal controls directly relate to corporate governance, business ethics, managerial structure, compensation, internal council and whistleblowers. External controls include government regulation, external auditors, accountants and the judicial process. A recurring theme in corporate governance is the limited efficacy of many safeguards in cases of “control fraud,” which is abetted or directed by top management and abusive practices become the organizational norm. Devastating organizational and personal consequences occur when fraud is determined within an organization, and many times it seems easier for the employees, directors, auditors, and even government regulators to go along with the internal/external cultural trends than to disrupt the functionality of the business. A corporate officer’s autonomy and power can be so great that once fraud is identified there is no effective force within the organization to counter their decisions. 

Incentives need to be placed within the realm of an organization’s corporate governance to create a reward structure for ethical behavior. The division of management and ownership is diluted in publicly traded companies, whereas ownership is dispersed among thousands of shareholders. CEO’s of large publicly traded companies have received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stock options during their tenures, which often outweighs their salary and bonus compensation. This is not directly tied to “ethical” behavior, and has yet been determined if the CEO’s performance in most cases have increased anyone’s wealth including the shareholders with the exception of themselves.

Why is there a failure of pay practices to improve ethical standards in corporate America?

1. CEO’s are able to exercise an enormous amount of bargaining power when negotiating employment contracts in which the only oversight is provided by the board of directors, who are normally disinclined to challenge top management.

2. CEO’s have significant power influencing and determining the board membership through control of the nomination process and the ethical concerns of the organization may not be important to the CEO (especially if they are planning to conduct fraudulent activities).

3. Directors represent the shareholders, but the shareholders do not select the directors in any meaningful way. Directors primarily want to keep their good graces with the board to keep their respective positions. Rarely do the shareholders vote to the contrary of the board and management.

Future attempts must be taken to reduce deceptive business practices in taking the full range spectrum of the current and potential problems of unethical behavior in corporate America. The first step in providing a barrier to unethical business practices was from the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Now it is the responsibility of the individual shareholders to demand more from the CEO’s of publicly traded companies in which they personally invest. Investors/shareholders need to research the companies in which they invest, and in many cases voting against management’s decisions may be beneficial. 

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Did You Know? By Michelle Glisan Blevins         

• That Mount Agri, or Mount Ararat, in Turkey, is where Noah’s Ark is said to have come to rest

• That in 1922, with the founding of the Republic of Turkey, the 631 year rule of the Ottoman Empire came to an end

• That the legendary city of Troy, whose remains are located in northwest Turkey, was demolished and rebuilt an estimated nine times over 3500 years of habitation

• That in 1935 it became a legal requirement to use surnames

• That two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were located in what is modern day Turkey: the Temple of Artemis and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus 

The flag of Turkey is red with a white crescent and white five-point star. While the crescent and star are traditional Islamic symbols, the use of these symbols in Turkey predate Islamic influence. Although this flag style had been in use since 1844, it was not officially adopted until 1936.

JOHANN GUTENBERG

Johannes (Gensfleisch) Gutenberg

1398 - 1468

An inventor and printer, Johann Gutenberg was trained as a goldsmith, metallurgist and a gem cutter. Gutenberg is considered the first European to invent a functional moving-type printing press system. Prior to his moveable-type press, books were either hand transcribed (which could take years, even decades to produce) or they were printed one page at a time using hand carved wooden blocks (one block per page). With either production method books were very costly and only the rich could afford them. With the new printing press, books could be mass produced and were far more affordable to the public. 

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Survival of the Fittest

 HOW TO SURVIVE NUCLEAR FALLOUT

1. Put distance between yourself and the blast site.
   Radioactivity diminishes significantly with physical protection, time, and distance from the epicenter of the explosion. For a five-megaton weapon detonated at 2,000 feet (an average weapon yield and detonation altitude), move at least 20 miles away for safety. Travel in a crosswind direction (not with or against the wind) as quickly as possible. Drive a car with the windows rolled up. If no car is available, ride a bike or run.

2. Find shelter.
   Any material will at least partially block radioactive particles. However, equal thickness, dense materials like lead, concrete, and steel are more effective than porous materials like wood, tile, drywall, and insulation. If you cannot get into a designated fallout shelter, move to the basement of a building made of stone or concrete, preferably with few windows. The deeper the basement, the more protection you’ll have from radioactive particles.

3. Gather water.
   The existing water in a basement water tank should be safe to drink, as is water in pipes. However, if dams and water treatment plants become contaminated, new water entering the system may be dangerous. Stored bottled water is safe, provided the water does not come into contact with the outside of the bottle, which may be covered with radioactive particles.
   

4. Gather food.
   Packaged foods and those that can be peeled or shelled- and that are already in the house- are safe to eat, provided the packages, peels, or shells are rinsed thoroughly with clean water to eliminate radioactive alpha and beta particles. Canned goods are also safe, provided the cans are washed with clean water and food does not come into contact with the can’s exterior. Avoid foods from opened packages, even if the packages have been resealed with tape or clips.

5. Wash your hands before eating and drinking..
   Using soap and clean water, wash your hands (and under your fingernails) thoroughly before handling food. Radioactive particles traveling on dust can be transferred to food easily. Once ingested, these may settle in bone marrow and internal organs, causing long-term illness.

6. Stay in your shelter.
   Without a radiation rate meter, you will not know when it is safe to leave your shelter. If you have access to a battery-powered radio, listen for news and monitor emergency announcements regarding the safety of your location. Cellular and wired telephones may not work, and even satellite phones may suffer from severe interference. If available, use a CB or short-wave radio to communicate with others until telephone service is restored.

   Be Aware

   A radiation suit will prevent you from tracking radioactive particles into the shelter (as long as you remove the suit upon entering), but will not offer protection from fallout

WHAT TO DO IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO FALLOUT

1. Remove contaminated clothing.
   Radioactive dirt and dust will cling to clothing, causing radiation burns, sickness, and contamination of other people and objects. Remove contaminated clothing before entering a clean area.
   

2. Take a shower.
   Showering in clean, fresh water is the best way to remove harmful radioactive particles from your skin. Use soap and warm water and clean under fingernails and toenails. If you do not have a sufficient amount of uncontaminated water for a shower, fill a bucket with as much water as possible and take a sponge bath, making sure the contaminated water goes down the drain..

3. Take potassium iodide (KI) or potassium iodate (KIO3) pills.
   Potassium iodide or iodate helps prevent radiation absorption by the thyroid gland. While it is most effective when taken 48 hours prior to exposure, potassium iodide provides some benefit if taken within 16 hours of exposure to radioactive fallout. If no pills are available, mix 2 ounces of granulated potassium iodide (available at chemical supply stores) with clean water and shake or stir vigorously, adding more potassium iodide until the solution is fully saturated. (You will see unmixed granules at the bottom of the glass or bottle.) Take 4 drops of the solution per day for at least 10 days. For infants, paint iodine onto the soles of the feet.
   

4. Monitor your symptoms..
   Mild exposure to radiation may result in skin burns, weakness, loss of appetite, vomiting, and diarrhea, while higher doses lead to fainting, bleeding from the nose and gums, hair loss, anemia, hemorrhage, brain damage, and sometimes death within 48 hours. In general, breathing or swallowing radioactive particles or exposure to gamma rays result in more severe illness than surface exposure to radioactive particles, which are relatively easy to remove from the skin.

5. Get help.
   Though there is no known treatment for radiation sickness, seek medical attention as soon as it is safe and possible to do so. A bone marrow transplant might alleviate some damage from exposure.
   

   Be Aware

   A radiation suit will prevent you from tracking radioactive particles into the shelter (as long as you remove the suit upon entering), but will not offer protection from fallout Iodized salt is not an effective protection against radiation damage to the thyroid: You will get salt poisoning before absorbing enough iodine to have a beneficial effect.

   Victims of exposure to high levels of radiation may appear to improve several days after exposure as the body superficially heals. But deep biological damage remains, and the victim may rapidly deteriorate after the initial improvement.
   .(Piven and Borgenicht)

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