A serious question for Democrats on Syria

By Michael Collins
COTO Report

Leaders of the Democratic Party and their media side kicks are giving President Barack Obama a free ride on his proposal to attack Syria.  Along with the Republican leadership, they’re ignoring the strong opposition to any attack by citizens in both parties and independents.

The president’s proposed military strike targets a government that has neither attacked nor threatened to attack us or our allies.  Obama did so without any intent to get congressional approval and before any evidence was made public.  He and the Secretary of State announced the attack without regard to clear international law which bars the unprovoked attacks on sovereign nations.

Castro: World Peace Hanging by a Thread

Photo released by Iranian Fars News Agency shows Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, who was killed in a bomb blast in Tehran, Iran, on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012, with his son.

By Fidel Castro

I am convinced that Iran will not commit any rash actions that might contribute to setting off a war. If a war were to be unleashed, it would inevitably be completely as a result of the recklessness and congenital irresponsibility of the Yankee Empire, writes former Cuban leader, Fidel Castro.

Fronting Intervention: Using Invisible Children to Sell War to Children

By Douglas Storm
B-Town Errant

You know, don’t you, that you have to invite vampires into your home or they are not capable of entering, or better, they are forbidden to enter by some kind of law that governs the undead.  (It’s important to have rules in the necromantic realms as it shows that there is order in all of God’s creations, even the evil ones.)

I was put in mind of this “rule” when I read the “School Diary” column in yesterday’s local paper.  It was penned by a Bloomington South High School student and was headlined, “School diary: Rights of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness are far from universal.“  It’s nice to see we learn the proper way to start a piece of propaganda in our high schools.

‘Human Rights’ Groups and the Pretext for War in Syria

By James Corbett

The Arab League has announced it’s reached a deal with Syria on easing the country’s long-running political crisis. The agreement urges Damascus to immediately withdraw security forces from the streets, release jailed demonstrators, and start dialogue with the opposition. Syria also agreed to allow rights groups and Arab League watchdogs into the country. But the U.S. still says it wants to see President Assad resign.

The War on Libya and the Broader US-NATO Military Agenda

Is a World War III Scenario Unfolding?

By Prof. Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research

With the killing of Libya’s leader Muammar Gaddafi this past week, NATO is celebrating what, in their view, is a great victory. However, this so-called “victory” has nothing to do with democracy, freedom or justice; it is part of a broad, insidious geopolitical strategy that has been on NATO’s drawing board for years. And what is even more frightening than the bloodlust being shamelessly splashed across the mainstream media is the fact that this latest manoeuver is merely a small part of a much wider military agenda with potentially catastrophic consequences.

In his latest e-book, “Towards a World War III Scenario“, Prof. Michel Chossudovsky outlines the strategies and real motives behind the war on Libya, what we can expect next from NATO (the world’s deadly “humanitarian” force), and the necessary steps for dispelling disinformation and preventing war on an unprecedented scale.

NATO’s War on Libya is Directed against China: AFRICOM and the Threat to China’s National Energy Security

By F. William Engdahl
Global Research

MAP: Africom’s regional interests. Copyright Stratfor.com 2011

The Washington-led decision by NATO to bomb Gaddafi’s Libya into submission over recent months, at an estimated cost to US taxpayers of at least $1 billion, has little if anything to do with what the Obama Administration claims was a mission to “protect innocent civilians.” In reality it is part of a larger strategic assault by NATO and by the Pentagon in particular to entirely control China’s economic achilles heel, namely China’s strategic dependence on large volumes of imported crude oil and gas. Today China is the world’s second largest importer of oil after the United States and the gap is rapidly closing.

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.

Bahrain – Is Washington Preparing for ‘Regime Change’ in PR Disaster Kingdom?

By Finian Cunningham
Global Research

The persistence of pro-democracy protests in Bahrain in the face of brutal repression may be giving Washington second thoughts about its unwavering support for the royal rulers of the strategically important Persian Gulf kingdom. Are we about to witness a cosmetic ‘regime change’ – not so much for the genuine sake of democratic rights in Bahrain, but more to save Washington’s vital interests across the region?

The tiny island situated between Saudi Arabia and Qatar serves as the base for the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. The Fifth Fleet, comprising 16,000 personnel and 30 vessels, is a staging ground for US military projection across the Middle East and Central Asia. It also monitors the sealanes of the Persian Gulf through which some 30 per cent of the world’s total supply of traded oil passes every day.

NATO’s War Crimes in Libya: Sanctions against defiance

By James Petras
Voltaire Net

Faced with the deteriorating global situation and a wave of popular uprisings breaking away from Western hegemony, NATO powers counter-attacked in the most resolute manner. According to James Petras, the destruction of an independent and secular regime like Libya was meant to send a strong message: any independent Third World regime can be overthrown; colonial puppet regimes can be forced upon a devastated people; colonialism is still thriving; and imperial rule is here again. ~ InfoWars Editor

Understand the Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order

By Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research

The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order
Preface to the Second Edition

Barely a few weeks after the military coup in Chile on September 11, 1973, overthrowing the elected government of President Salvador Allende, the military Junta headed by General Augusto Pinochet ordered a hike in the price of bread from 11 to 40 escudos, a hefty overnight increase of 264%. This economic shock treatment had been designed by a group of economists called the “Chicago Boys”.

At the time of the military coup, I was teaching at the Institute of Economics of the Catholic University of Chile, which was a nest of Chicago trained economists, disciples of Milton Friedman. On that September 11, in the hours following the bombing of the Presidential Palace of La Moneda, the new military rulers imposed a 72-hour curfew. When the university reopened several days later, the “Chicago Boys” were rejoicing. Barely a week later, several of my colleagues at the Institute of Economics were appointed to key positions in the military government.

Osama and the Ghosts of September 11: ‘Proof that Obama is Lying’

By Michael C. Ruppert
Global Research

May 5, 2011_, 1400 PST, SEBASTOPOL – I have personally interrogated underage criminal suspects who could lie better than White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. It has been four days since the P.T. Barnum proclamation of the death of Osama bin Laden (OBL). President Obama’s account of the firefight has had zero credibility from the outset and it continues to fray and wear thin as each day passes.

First, bin Laden was shooting. Then he wasn’t. Now, no pictures are going to be released. Ridiculous arguments on CNN, by House members stating that releasing photos would inflame and invite retaliation, flatly contradict what I suspect every grunt who ever earned a Combat Infantry Badge would say:

“Release the damn pictures. Give us some to hand out to the “indigs”. We got our man and that’s a message to anyone who would mess with us…Hoo Ah!”

Putting out Fire with Gasoline in Libya; while Libya accepts African Union Plan for resolution

Llibya accepts African Union Plan, April 10

By Susan Lindauer
Former U.S. Intelligence Asset covering Libya and Iraq at the United Nations

War doesn’t work, does it? Best case scenario, NATO’s war against Libya will run 18 to 24 months unless decisive action is taken right now—this day—to end the military confrontation.

Moussa Koussa, Libya’s Foreign Minister who defected to Britain on March 30, warns Libya is in danger of becoming the “New Somalia.”

Violence is erupting from both sides. The ugly truth is that with every missile strike, NATO kills more and more Libyan people.

NATO cares nothing for the Saudi invasion of Bahrain, which has resulted in wide-scale disappearances of democracy activists. NATO cares nothing for the uprisings in Yemen, peppered with government snipers. Only Libya has been singled out for violent retribution. Of course, this is an oil grab. Gadhaffi challenged U.S. (and probably British) oil companies to reimburse Libya for the economic damage caused by U.N. sanctions tied to the Lockerbie bombing, which Libya had nothing to do with. The U.N. Security Council forced Libya to submit to the Lockerbie Trial and pay $2.7 billion in damages to the families of Pan Am 103, only for the U.S. to bribe witnesses with $4 million payments to testify against Libya’s men at trial.

Libyan Hospitals Attacked. Libyan Source: Three French Jets Downed

Al-Tajura Hospital

Three French Jets Downed

By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
Global Research

The U.S. and its allies are embarking on another regime change operation. Before they started their attacks on the Libyans, they admitted that there would be civilians casualities in an act of irony. They claim to be acting to save civilians, but they will be killing them. [Image]

“Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the action amounts to an ‘act of war’ that is critical to remove Moammar Gadhafi from power before he massacres any more of his own people,” according to the Edmonton Journal. [1] It also added: “The prime minister acknowledged that the military operation will be complex and could lead to casualties among the very civilians that nations are trying to protect, and perhaps among the military personnel being sent to Libya.” [2]

The war criminals are back at it again.

A Top Secret Communique From The Obvious One

Greetings From The Obvious One

By Volaar

Hello my fellow Americans, Captain Obvious here – reporting live from behind the enemy lines erected on 9/11/2001 by a criminal junta funded, it seems, by multiple sovereign fiduciary entities for which it has become a capital crime to reveal the truth about in a court of law.  That would be a capital crime punishable by death sans judge or jury of one’s peers.

Hillary Clinton recently stated that Wikileaks has attacked the international community.  To those who prevaricate for a living, the truth seems the ultimate weapon of assault.

So how did this pathetic reversal of contemporary reality take place? 

V

Faith not in any god but in our own humanity.  This is all that any Creator would hope to inspire.

Is talk of secession sedition? Arundhati Roy responds to charges

By Rady Ananda

In a speech last week supporting ‘azadi’ — or freedom — for the occupied people of Kashmir, Arundhati Roy won the ire of right wing extremists who started a petition to have her arrested on charges of sedition. Even moderates are shocked by her support of secession. I sit on an Indian listserve, and some of the comments against her were vicious, with most people supporting prison for this freedom-loving, earth-loving, prolific writer and activist.

Sedition is being openly discussed in several states in the US.  Bill Kaufman’s new book, Bye Bye, Miss American Empire addresses the topic head on (Chelsea Green, 2010).

The Israel Lobby Swims The Atlantic

By Grant Smith
AntiWar.com

Jeffrey Goldberg’s current cover story in The Atlantic, “The Point of No Return,”  achieved massive distribution across a broad spectrum of old and new media in the United States. Some observers – including Glenn Greenwald in “How Propagandists Function” – noted how well the methodology and message of Goldberg’s piece serves the Israeli government’s efforts to push U.S. military action against Iran. Gareth Porter views it as part of an overarching strategy to keep the U.S. from restoring productive relations with Iran. A huge trove of newly declassified documents subpoenaed during a Senate investigation reveals how Israel’s lobby pitched, promoted, and paid to have content placed in America’s top news magazines with overseas funding. The Atlantic (and others) received hefty rewards for trumpeting Israel’s most vital – but damaging – PR initiatives across America.

Meirsheimer and Walt: The Israel Lobby

By John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
London Review of Books
March 23, 2006

Also see this 52-minute documentary by the Dutch TV show, Tagenlicht, about the controversy this article generated. (2007)

For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centrepiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread ‘democracy’ throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardised not only US security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the US been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state? One might assume that the bond between the two countries was based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, but neither explanation can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the US provides.

US policy to Venezuela: Combining military and electoral tactics

By James Petras
Correo del Orinoco

US efforts to overthrow President Chavez’s democratic government borrow many of the tactics applied against previous democratic adversaries. These include border incursions by Colombian paramilitary and military forces similar to cross border attacks by the US sponsored “contras” against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua during the 1980s. The attempt to encircle and isolate Venezuela is similar to Washington’s policy over the past half century against Cuba. The funneling of funds to opposition groups, parties, media and NGO’s via US agencies and “dummy” foundations is a repeat of the tactics applied to destabilize the democratic government of Salvador Allende of Chile 1970-73, Evo Morales in Bolivia 2006-2010 and numerous other governments in the region.

World War III Is Starting and US Has Already Lost

By Michael Rivero