At the Drive In

I’ve put this off long enough.  I’ve enjoyed the fruits and sweetness of a brief entanglement with bliss and despair long enough.  It is time that I get down to business, call a spade a spade and then pick up my spade and put it to its intended use.  I am done with my creature comforts and of protecting what has yet to be taken, as if what has already been taken has not been egregious enough.

Perhaps I should qualify the comforts I enjoy today, at the edge of this springboard, by mentioning where this journey began for me.

USA’s Poison Values

By Robert C. Koehler
COTO Report

Poison gas is not only a “moral obscenity” — one the United States stockpiled for decades after its use was banned in warfare — but a metaphor for human recklessness and wasted science.

Like it or not, we’re forced to think about it these days, since it’s still an enticing pretext for war. And the more I think about it, the more I marvel at the persistent insanity of its existence. The “red line” that the so-called civilized world crossed over a century ago was not in the use of poison gas but in its creation, because it’s lethal whether it’s used or not. Attempting to get rid of it — by burying it, burning it, dumping it — has consequences almost as deadly as firing it off in battle.

Libya in Anarchy Two Years after NATO Humanitarian Liberation

By F. William Engdahl
Global Research

In 2011 when Muhammar Qaddafi refused to leave quietly as ruler of Libya, the Obama Administration, hiding behind the skirts of the French, launched a ferocious bombing campaign and a “No Fly” zone over the country to aid the so-called fighters for democracy.

The US lied to Russia and China with help of the (US-friendly) Gulf Cooperation Council about the Security Council Resolution on Libya and used it to illegally justify the war. The doctrine, “responsibility to protect” was used instead, the same doctrine Obama wants to use in Syria. It’s useful top look at Libya two years after the NATO humanitarian intervention.

July 4th reprieve for Bradley Manning after prosecution rests

By Rady Ananda
COTO Report

As the nation readies itself for its annual celebration of freedom, the modern U.S. government seeking to severely punish hero whistleblower, Bradley Manning, rested its case prosecuting him for 21 charges, including ‘aiding the enemy’ which carries a life sentence. The court martial is being held at Fort Meade in Maryland and is expected to end in August.

Top image: In this June 5, 2013 photo Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., after the third day of his court martial.  In June 2010, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was arrested for giving WikiLeaks more than 700,000 classified battlefield reports, diplomatic cables and video clips while working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Welcome to the New Syria

By Michael Collins

The assault on Damascus by Syrian rebels and terrorist murder of the Syrian Defense Minister occurred just as the Red Cross announced that the fighting in Syria was officially a civil war. This is an odd reward system for military action by the Free Syria Army. Commit enough acts of violence and you’re rewarded with special protections that apply in times of war. (Image)

The rebel Free Syria Army attacks cities and villages, disrupts the Syrian economy, and is in the business of suicide bombing. It has the material and diplomatic support of Saudi Arabia and the other oil oligarchies plus the big guns in NATO. So-called Syrian experts supporting the carnage are amply funded by United States sponsored nongovernment organizations.

Jew or Genital?

A Story in Three Pieces

By Volaar

 I should have suspected that the future would not be anything like it had been promised to us in 1977.  During a compulsory sex education course one of our football coaches had the indubitable privilege of referring to our nether regions as, “gentiles.” 

War crimes in Libya and the March shift

By Michael Collins

Foreign Policy just published a roundup of weapons contributed to the Libyan rebels in the regime change effort. The e-Journal is a publication of the Washington Post. Colum Lynch’s April 4 article relies on the March 20 UN report to the UN Security Council by a panel of experts appointed to track the UN resolutions and responses from the start of the conflict.

These two paragraphs, noncontroversial in establishment world, outline clear violations of Principle VI (a), (b), and (c), of the Nuremburg Principles, affirmed by the United Nations General Assembly.

“As the late Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi’s forces prepared to crush the Libyan uprising last summer in Benghazi, Britain, France, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and other allies moved quickly to reinforce the beleaguered rebel forces.

“With military supplies, training, advice — and of course the backing of NATO war planes — this coalition of governments provided critical support to change the course of the conflict, ultimately leading to Qaddafi’s downfall. ” Colum Lynch, Foreign Policy, March 4

It’s right there. The rebels were getting their clock cleaned by the legal government of Libya. The UN Security Council approved a humanitarian mission run by NATO to protect Libyan civilians based almost exclusively on evidence from one questionable source, an activist who was part of the Libyan rebels group.

A constructive comparison of Israel and apartheid South Africa

By Kenya Palestine Solidarity Committee
Pambazuka News

Comparisons between Israel’s control over the Palestinians and apartheid South Africa can yield crucial clues on how to move towards the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. [Image]

How legitimate are comparisons of Israel’s control over the Palestinians and apartheid South Africa’s treatment of blacks?

The Dignity of Corpses

By Robert C. Koehler

Civilization hasn’t successfully drawn a moral border at the sanctity of human life itself, but because it needs to put some limit on human behavior, it has, apparently, taken a last stand at the dignity of corpses.

It’s OK to kill your enemy, but not to urinate on him, at least not after he’s dead.

Fast, Furious and Outrageous

By Volaar

Wayne Madsen has learned from his contacts within the Beltway intelligence community that Jared Lee Loughner is an “MK-ULTRA” programmed assassin and that US District Judge John Roll and Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords were targetted for assassination.  The reason for the decision to target Judge Roll and Congresswoman Giffords has to do with their knowledge

Blagojevich gets 14 years, but what about these guys?

By Michael Collins

(Washington, DC) Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich just got 14 years in prison. He wheeled and dealed to leverage contributions and other favors based on his position as governor. He was indicted by former special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald (who tanked the Valerie Plame case).

Maybe it was the former governor’s colorful (and to some vulgar) language captured on audio tapes or his brash style. Regardless of the motives, the time, money and attention wasted on his indictment and trial stands in stark contrast to the crimes never prosecuted, crimes that resulted in death, unnecessary illness and suffering, and the loss of trillions of dollars caused by the perpetrators of the current economic crisis. (Image: michaelpickard)

While prosecutors pick easy targets like Blagojevich, serious crimes go unprosecuted.

President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney lied about the basis for invading Iraq. As a result, they are responsible for the deaths of soldiers resulting from that invasion and occupation.

War Crimes in Libya – The Smoking Guns

By Michael Collins

“The UN said in its resolution that they wanted to protect civilians. I am a civilian. I’m asking the United Nations and the National Transition Council for help for the citizens of Sirte.” ~ Ali Salah Arzaga, Sirte, Libya. (His home and business were destroyed in the final assault on his city.)

There are very public smoking guns that inculpate the rulers of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and others in war crimes in Libya.

The rationale for NATO’s entry into the Libyan conflict was based on humanitarian principles, correctly noted by Mr. Arzaga. (left, text and image: VOA video). The United Nations Security Council passed resolution 1973 on March 17 and NATO followed up with actions that the alliance and its partner Qatar claimed conformed to the resolution. The sole purpose of NATO’s involvement was to “protect the Libyan population,” we were told.

The outcome has been anything but humanitarian. Tens of thousands of Libyans are injured or dead. The nation’s infrastructure is in tatters. One city, Sirte, was destroyed during the final push while another city, the non-Arab Black Libyan town of Tawergha, is absent its entire population, 25,000 residents. They were there just a few weeks ago.

Anti-Empire Report on Gaddafi, psychopathic empire and sick media

By William Blum
Anti-Empire Report

It doesn’t matter to them if it’s untrue. It’s a higher truth.

“We came, we saw, he died.” — US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, giggling, as she spoke of the depraved murder of Moammar Gaddafi

Imagine Osama bin Laden or some other Islamic leader speaking of 9-11: “We came, we saw, 3,000 died … ha- ha.”

Clinton and her partners-in-crime in NATO can also have a good laugh at how they deceived the world.

The Murder of Muammar Gaddafi

By GRTV.ca

The International Criminal Court is due to receive a suit against NATO over the killing of Libyan ex-leader Muammar Gaddafi. But the Gaddafi family’s chances of finding justice in The Hague are all too slim, says journalist James Corbett.

In their suit, which cites the “deliberate killing” of a person protected by the Geneva Convention, Gaddafi’s family will target NATO’s executive bodies and the leaders of its member states, their lawyer, Marcel Ceccaldi, said on Wednesday.

US & Gullible Americans Celebrate Apparent Fortunes of Al Qaeda in Libya

By Tony Cartalucci

At face value, the tenuous narrative of a struggling, desperate NATO confounded by months of fierce resistance on all fronts and an increasingly brutal and transparently atrocious proxy army on the ground in Libya, suddenly wringing victory from what was essentially a catastrophic failure, is difficult to believe. This, especially as NATO desperately needs to turn its full attention toward Syria as the window of its imperial ambitions quickly closes forever. Already, claims that Muammar Qaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam had been captured have turned out to be admittedly false, Reuters finally admits [1], even after an elaborate tale had already begun spreading through the biased, irresponsible corporate-driven Western media.

Photo: It’s all smiles and laughs in Tripoli as McCain, a chief proponent and driving force behind the US intervention in Libya, literally glorifies Al Qaeda’s exploits in the now ruined nation. Miles away, the very rebels he was praising were purposefully starving the civilian population of Sirte in an effort to break their will, while they and NATO indiscriminately used heavy weapons aimed at crowded city centers.

Libya: David Cameron’s 2 Billion Pound Nightmare

By Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

What do you get when a wannabe imperialist invents a war to get out of trouble at home, straying into deep waters that he neither controls nor understands, getting embroiled in an internecine tribal conflict that spins out of control? The answer to this question is the place where the UK’s David Cameron finds himself now: a 2-bn. pound nightmare.

Not so many months ago, we had David Cameron and William Hague declaring that the Libya Question was “not about removing Gaddafi” and that all it would take would be an immediate ceasefire from the Libyan Armed Forces. Not so many months ago we had David Cameron and William Hague declaring that the war would cost in the region of 200 million pounds, that there would be no NATO boots on the ground and that NATO would not arm the “rebels”.

What they did not tell us was that the French and Americans had been planning this imperialist little adventure for years–

U.S. soldiers fighting for Haliburton, KBR (video)

Intro by Susan Lindauer

This is a thought provoking video that should make you very angry. It depicts war crimes and the hand over of U.S. soldiers to build market share for Haliburton and Kellogg, Brown & Root.  It’s not for our benefit as a nation, or the benefit of our young men and women in uniform who are abused by this system as surely as the Iraqi and Afghan civilians we are fighting.

Welcome to Boston, Mr. Rumsfeld. You Are Under Arrest

By Ralph Lopez
Daily KOS

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been stripped of legal immunity for acts of torture against US citizens authorized while he was in office.   The 7th Circuit made the ruling in the case of two American contractors who were tortured by the US military in Iraq after uncovering a smuggling ring within an Iraqi security company.  The company was under contract to the Department of Defense.   The company was assisting Iraqi insurgent groups in the “mass acquisition” of American weapons.  The ruling comes as Rumsfeld begins his book tour with a visit to Boston on Monday, September 26, and as new, uncensored photos of Abu Ghraib spark fresh outrage across Internet.  Awareness is growing that Bush-era crimes went far beyond mere waterboarding.

Torture Room, Abu Ghraib

NATO uses Mustard Gas in Bani Walid (confirmed)

By Ozyism

Reports that NATO has used Mustard Gas in Bani Walid have been coming from eye witnesses from within the beseiged town.  A gruesome image of a victim of such terrorism has come out in social networks.

Most argue that this terrorism is implemented to force Libyans into submission. They have refused to surrender and give the country to NATO, so NATO has resorted to terrorism and a slow genocide.

Should Canadian authorities arrest Dick Cheney for war crimes when he comes to Vancouver?

Vancouver lawyer Gail Davidson seeks Dick Cheney’s arrest
By Carlito Pablo
The Straight

Ex–vice president Dick Cheney may receive a rude welcome in Vancouver.

Dick Cheney is coming to town on September 26 to promote his book In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir. But Vancouver lawyer Gail Davidson has other plans for one of the most controversial figures of the modern era, a powerful man who publicly admitted having allowed torture.

The cofounder of the international group Lawyers Against the War wants the government of Canada either to bar the former U.S. vice president from entering the country or, if he’s allowed in, to arrest and prosecute him for torture, war offences, and crimes against humanity. And if Canada isn’t keen on punishing the ex–vice president to former president George W. Bush, Davidson argues, then it should extradite Cheney to a country that is willing and able to prosecute him.