Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Penny Lane & Strawberry Fields Forever ! War & Peace ?




It was a nod to the classic Beatles song and a riff on the CIA's other secret facility at Guantanamo Bay, a prison known as Strawberry Fields.

Let me take you down, 'cause i'm going to
strawberry fields
nothing is real
and nothing to get hung about
strawberry fields forever
Living is easy with eyes closed
misunderstanding all you see
it's getting hard to be someone, but it all works out
it doesn't matter much to me
Let me take you down, 'cause i'm going to
strawberry fields
nothing is real
and nothing to get hung about
strawberry fields forever
No one, i think, is in my tree
i mean, it must be high or low
that is, you can't, you know, tune in, but it's alright
that is, i think it's not too bad
Let me take you down, 'cause i'm going to
strawberry fields
nothing is real
and nothing to get hung about
strawberry fields forever
Always, no, sometimes, think it's me
but, you know, i know when it's a dream
i think, er, no, i mean, er, yes, but it's all wrong
that is, i think i disagree
Let me take you down, 'cause i'm going to
strawberry fields
nothing is real
and nothing to get hung about
strawberry fields forever
strawberry fields forever
strawberry fields forever


Nearly a dozen current and former U.S officials described aspects of the program to The Associated Press. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the secret program publicly by name, even though it ended in about 2006.

Some of the men who passed through Penny Lane helped the CIA find and kill many top al-Qaida operatives, current and former U.S. officials said. Others stopped providing useful information and the CIA lost touch with them.

When prisoners began streaming into Guantanamo Bay in January 2002, the CIA recognized it as an unprecedented opportunity to identify sources. That year, 632 detainees arrived at the detention center. The following year 117 more arrived.

"Of course that would be an objective," said Emile Nakhleh, a former top CIA analyst who spent time in 2002 assessing detainees but who did not discuss Penny Lane. "It's the job of intelligence to recruit sources."

By early 2003, Penny Lane was open for business.

"Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs
of every head he's had the pleasure to know
And all the people that come and go stop to say hello
On the corner is a banker with a motor car
the little children laugh at him behind his back
And the banker never wears a "mac" in the pouring rain
Very strange

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
Wet beneath the blue suburban skies
I sit and meanwhile back in

Penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass
And in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen
He likes to keep his fire engine clean
It's clean machine

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
Full of fish and finger pies
in summer meanwhile back

Behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout
A pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray
And though she feels as if she's in a play
She is anyway
Penny Lane, the barber shaves another customer
We see the banker sitting waiting for a trim
And then the fireman rushes in from the pouring rain
very strange

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
Wet beneath the blue suburban skies
I sit and meanwhile back
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
There beneath the blue suburban skies
Penny Lane"

Candidates were ushered from the confines of prison to Penny Lane's relative hominess, officials said. The cottages had private kitchens, showers and televisions. Each had a small patio.

Some prisoners asked for and received pornography. One official said the biggest luxury in each cottage was the bed — not a military-issued cot but a real bed with a mattress.

The cottages were designed to feel more like hotel rooms than prison cells, and some CIA officials jokingly referred to them collectively as the Marriott.

>> http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/politics/article/Penny-Lane-Gitmo-s-other-secret-CIA-facility-5011782.php 



Lord, Thou didst answer stern and low:
‘Child, I will hearken to thy prayer,
And thy unconquered soul shall know
All passionate rapture and despair.

‘Thou shalt drink deep of joy and fame,
And love shall burn thee like a fire,
And pain shall cleanse thee like a flame,
To purge the dross from thy desire.

‘So shall thy chastened spirit yearn
To seek from its blind prayer release,
And spent and pardoned, sue to learn
The simple secret of My peace.

‘I, bending from my sevenfold height,
Will teach thee of My quickening grace,
Life is a prism of My light,
And Death the shadow of My face.’

- The Soul's Prayer, a poem by Sarojini Naidu 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/656.War_and_Peace 

Dirty secrets and controversial truths are the themes of this documentary called “Dirty Wars” and directed by Richard Rowley. The film follows Jeremy Scahill, author of the book on the controversial company “Blackwater”, who discovers all lies of U.S. Officials about the victims of the War. The movie recieved an hail at the end of the screening because of the captivating narrative structure and because of the urgent need to be told.  
http://www.moveoramablog.com/2013_01_01_archive.html <<

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