Who do they think they are at war with, exactly??
Director of Central Intelligence John Brennan:
‘It’s a long war, unfortunately. But it’s been a war that has been in existence for millennia…’
via Politics, Power, and Preventive Action » CIA Director: We’re Winning the War on Terror, But It Will Never End.
The Economist
‘Today, only five states have no minimum-wage laws; all were Confederate 150 years ago. Of the ten states that lock up the highest proportion of their citizens, seven were Confederate. A further two that make the top ten—Oklahoma and Arizona—were created since 1865 and settled in the late 19th century by southerners escaping the depression that followed defeat. In only 12 states do most residents think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. Five were in the Confederacy….’
via The Economist – Timeline Photos.
‘WASHINGTON — An Egyptian procurement of 356 AGM-114K/R3 Hellfire II missiles has been cleared by the State Department, the first new procurement since the White House lifted a freeze on weapon sales to that nation.
The sale also comes as Egypt takes part in anti-militant operations in Yemen, which the US is indirectly aiding with logistical support…’
via Egypt Hellfire Buy OK'd Amidst Yemen Strikes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byIsaZ5WYyM
Physicians for Social Responsibility, winner of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize has published an extensive report attempting to calculate the deaths during the US War on Terror…
‘Authored by IPPNW-Germany, the report is a comprehensive account of the vast human toll of the “Wars on Terror” conducted in the name of the American people since September 11, 2001.’
read the .pdf: http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/body-count.pdf
Executive Summary:
‘…The purpose of this investigation is to provide as realistic an estimate as possible of the total body count in the three main war zones Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan during 12 years of ‘war on terrorism’. An extensive review has been made of the major studies and data published on the numbers of victims in these countries. This paper draws on additional information such as reports and statistics on military offensives and examines their completeness and plausibility. It applies interpolation to calculate the figures for those periods for which no information is available. Even now, 13 years after this war began, there has still been no equivalent study.
This investigation comes to the conclusion that the war has, directly or indirectly, killed around 1 million people in Iraq, 220,000 in Afghanistan and 80,000 in Pakistan, i.e. a total of around 1.3 million. Not included in this figure are further war zones such as Yemen. The figure is approximately 10 times greater than that of which the public, experts and decision makers are aware of and propagated by the media and major NGOs. And this is only a conservative estimate. The total number of deaths in the three countries named above could also be in excess of 2 million, whereas a figure below 1 million is extremely unlikely…’
The Clinton Foundation is the slush fund
A recent report has emerged revealing that Venezuelan billionaire and media tycoon, Gustavo Cisneros, donated up to US$ 1 million dollars to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation between 2009-2013, while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State for the Obama administration.
A recent review of the foundation’s disclosures, carried out by the Wall Street Journal, brings to light a number of donators that were previously unknown to the public.
The figures include Argentinian and Ukrainian businesspeople, as well as Prince Turki al-Faisal of the Saudi Arabian Royal Family, who collectively donated up to US$68 million to the organisation over the course of four years. The majority of large donations came from residents in the Ukraine (US$10 million), England (US$8.4 million) and Saudi Arabia (US$7.3 million), according to the report.
Described as Latin America’s “Berlusconi,” Gustavo Cisneros appears in the report as having donated up to US$ 1 million to the couple’s foundation between 2009 and 2013. The exact amount and number of donations that he made are still unclear, however, as the foundation’s disclosure reports only cite donations in ranges as opposed to specific amounts.
Venezuelan Coup Plotter Gustavo Cisneros Donated $1M to Clinton Foundation | venezuelanalysis.com.
The Clinton Foundation is the slush fund
‘…Yet as union leaders and human rights activists conveyed these harrowing reports of violence to then-Secretary of State Clinton in late 2011, urging her to pressure the Colombian government to protect labor organizers, she responded first with silence, these organizers say. The State Department publicly praised Colombia’s progress on human rights, thereby permitting hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid to flow to the same Colombian military that labor activists say helped intimidate workers.
At the same time that Clinton’s State Department was lauding Colombia’s human rights record, her family was forging a financial relationship with Pacific Rubiales, the sprawling Canadian petroleum company at the center of Colombia’s labor strife. The Clintons were also developing commercial ties with the oil giant’s founder, Canadian financier Frank Giustra, who now occupies a seat on the board of the Clinton Foundation, the family’s global philanthropic empire.
The details of these financial dealings remain murky, but this much is clear: After millions of dollars were pledged by the oil company to the Clinton Foundation — supplemented by millions more from Giustra himself — Secretary Clinton abruptly changed her position on the controversial U.S.-Colombia trade pact. Having opposed the deal as a bad one for labor rights back when she was a presidential candidate in 2008, she now promoted it, calling it “strongly in the interests of both Colombia and the United States.” The change of heart by Clinton and other Democratic leaders enabled congressional passage of a Colombia trade deal that experts say delivered big benefits to foreign investors like Giustra.
via As Colombian Oil Money Flowed To Clintons, State Department Took No Action To Prevent Labor Violations.
‘…“The drone builders are going to have a field day,” says Dov Zakheim, who served as Pentagon Comptroller during the George W. Bush administration. That could mean a tidy profit for privately held General Atomics, maker of the Predator drone, the granddaddy in the category and still widely in use, as well as the second-generation Reaper, designed to carry 3,000 pounds worth of bombs. And to help survey vast expanses of desert, the military will rely on the Global Hawk, made by Northrop Grumman NOC 0.49% to hover at altitudes as high as 50,000 feet for up to four days at a time. Those vehicles will likely be making use of the Gorgon Stare. This sensor, developed by privately held Sierra Nevada, is capable of scoping a 4-kilometer diameter by filming with nine cameras.
[….] “The most obvious cases are what I would call the boots, beans, and bullets trade,” says Ronald Epstein, a Bank of America analyst, pointing to “the guys with shorter backlogs.” That is, shipbuilders can’t expect much work from this conflict, but those supplying the ordnance American forces are already churning through should see new orders. Gunzinger notes that “small diameter bombs could be a huge winner, since aircraft can carry more of them in a single sortie—and they have very accurate seekers, so they can strike targets with less potential for collateral damage.” Tally up another advantage for Raytheon’s product line, among others.
American military operations targeting ISIS have cost some $600 million since mid-June, with the U.S. now spending more than $7.5 million a day on the conflict by the Pentagon’s own accounting. Zakheim estimates that this figure could conceivably double as the operations intensify and the theater widens to Syria, with a significant chunk of the expenditures going to munitions.
The total price tag for the open-ended conflict, expected to be measured in years rather than months, is anybody’s guess. In the immediate term, however, the White House is pressing Congress to approve $500 million to fund the training and equipping of pro-Western rebel groups in Syria….’
via The war on ISIS already has a winner: The defense industry – Fortune.
‘Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was a graduate of the US Prison system in Iraq’
Channel 4 News 30 Mar 2015
Learn how the 2003 invasion of Iraq, by the US and its allies, led to sectarian violence, terror and sowed the seeds of the Islamic State. Our International Editor, Lindsey Hilsum, recounts her experiences of Iraq during the first months of conflict and explains how ISIS has grown from the remnants of a defeated Al-Qaeda group and gained a stronghold in the heart of Iraq and Syria.
Tanya H. Lee writes:
This unquestioned belief that "America" – that is, white settlers – "had a mission" from God to spread democracy and new technologies sits at the heart of the problem. The issue before us is whether we want an educated populace that has a nuanced understanding of our history during the colonial period or a citizenry that is not equipped to think about history, because one very narrow interpretation of it is accepted without thought or criticism.
Michael Yellow Bird of the Arikara and Hidatsa Nation, a professor of sociology and director of indigenous tribal studies at North Dakota State University, said, "In my estimation, most American students receive what has been called an authoritarian education that celebrates a master narrative of this nation and really focuses on what appears to be its greatest accomplishment, the idea of American exceptionalism, the idea that America has done all these great things and sort of occupies a special place on the planet among all countries."…’
via The Native American Genocide and the Teaching of US History.
Former Ambassador Seyed Hossen Mousavian on Democracy Now….
‘I think there’s no difference between Israel and North Korea because North Korea has a few number of nuclear bombs. Israel has about 400 nuclear bombs. Therefore, they both are the same. They have nuclear bombs. There is a big difference between Iran and Israel. They really belong to two different wars on nonproliferation. Iran is member of the Nonproliferation Treaty and Israel has never been ready to accept it. There is no evidence in Iranian nuclear program. Iran does not have nuclear bomb. Israel has about 400 nuclear bombs. During last 10 years, Iran has given more than 7000 mandate inspections to International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA. This is completely unprecedented during the history of IAEA, no other country in the world has given access to IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, like Iran during the last decade. Israel, during last 50, 60 years, has not given even one inspection to the IAEA. Therefore, I believe the war and international community, they should judge who is wrong, who is right. Iran does not have nuclear bomb. Iran has accepted every level of inspection, transparency. Iran has accepted to have completely open nuclear program, and Israel does have a nuclear bomb and the country which does have nuclear bomb is blaming Iran, which does not have nuclear bomb.’
via Former Iranian Ambassador: Historic Nuclear Dear has Prevented a New War in the Middle East | Democracy Now!.
Do not forget that the Military-Industrial Complex also includes Academia…
Nearly 800 plaintiffs have launched a billion-dollar lawsuit against Johns Hopkins University over its alleged role in the deliberate infection of hundreds of vulnerable Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases, including syphilis and gonorrhoea, during a medical experiment programme in the 1940s and 1950s.
[….]
During the experiments the following occurred:
• Prostitutes were infected with venereal disease and then provided for sex to subjects for intentional transmission of the disease;
• Subjects were inoculated by injection of syphilis spirochaetes into the spinal fluid that bathes the brain and spinal cord, under the skin, and on mucous membranes;
• An emulsion containing syphilis or gonorrhoea was spread under the foreskin of the penis in male subjects;
• The penis of male subjects was scraped and scarified and then coated with the emulsion containing syphilis or gonorrhea;
• A woman from the psychiatric hospital was injected with syphilis, developed skin lesions and wasting, and then had gonorrhoeal pus from a male subject injected into both of her eyes and;
• Children were subjected to blood studies to check for the presence of venereal disease.
via Guatemalans deliberately infected with STDs sue Johns Hopkins University for $1bn | US news | The Guardian.
Trevor Timm writes:
‘…If Obama is an anti-war president, he’s the worst anti-war president in history. In the last six years, the Obama administration has bombed seven countries in the Middle East alone and armed countless more with tens of billions in dollars in weapons. But that’s apparently not enough for Republicans. As the Isis war continues to expand and Yemen descends into civil war, everyone is still demanding more: If only we bombed the region a little bit harder, then they’ll submit.
[….] But as the Council on Foreign Relations’ Douglas Dillon Fellow Micah Zenko tweeted recently, “If 30 years of US as military hegemon in the Middle East resulted in the region today, why would more suddenly stabilize things?” No one seems to be willing to face the stark fact that US involvement is as much the cause of the instability as it is the alleged solution….’
via If this is what an anti-war presidency looks like to you, you're detached from reality | Trevor Timm | Comment is free | The Guardian.
‘In September 1984, Nigerian music legend Fela Kuti found himself in a familiar position: under arrest.
…When it came to Fela Kuti, democratic principles didn’t seem get in Buhari’s way 30 years ago. Buhari’s government was behind Kuti’s arrest, and the singer was quickly sentenced to five years amid allegations reported by Amnesty International that witnesses were prevented from testifying on his behalf. There were even reports that the judge who sentenced Kuti later apologized to him….’
Muhammadu Buhari vs. Fela Kuti: Nigeria’s new president-elect once jailed a music icon – The Washington Post.
https://vimeo.com/26073365
Boots Riley, lead singer of The Coup (also www) doing spoken word at the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung – New York Office
Known to many as "G2," the unidentified object could be a cloud of gas, or it could be a star, depending on who you ask. Discovered in 2011, G2 captured the attention of scientists because it was on its way to making a tight swing around the black hole — potentially providing the dark monster with a snack. [….] The new observations of G2 show that it has remained compact during its swing around the black hole, according to the authors of the new research. Since a gas cloud would likely be smeared out by the gravitational pull of the black hole, the scientists conclude that the object is a star.
via New Evidence May Identify Mystery Object at Milky Way Galaxy's Core.
Sigh…, I feel old. Old enough to remember the first claims by US veterans complaining about ‘Gulf War syndrome‘ in the early nineties. I also remember that is was the American Left who took up the issue first, and I remember conservative and liberal politicians giving lip service to the issue later and the media attacking it as a ‘conspiracy theory’.
And here we are today, 2015, and it looks confirmed. At last.
Of course, we are left to only imagine the impact of these chemicals on the native Iraqis. They are not even part of the equation.
Much of the following has been known before – the news story here is that Newsweek is publishing it.
‘During and immediately after the first Gulf War, more than 200,000 of 700,000 U.S. troops sent to Iraq and Kuwait in January 1991 were exposed to nerve gas and other chemical agents. Though aware of this, the Department of Defense and CIA launched a campaign of lies and concocted a cover-up that continues today.
A quarter of a century later, the troops nearest the explosions are dying of brain cancer at two to three times the rate of those who were farther away. Others have lung cancer or debilitating chronic diseases, and pain….’
via U.S. Nerve Gas Hit Our Own Troops in Iraq.
In September of 2011 Occupy Wall Street lit a match to a movement. Today that movement is known for what it did and didn’t do. Occupy connected income inequality to political corruption and put both issues at the center of our political debate. What it didn’t do, by design, was provide a blueprint for economic reform or build a more institutional movement to secure it.
what we now have, an economy that outperforms nearly all other developed nations and a middle class that underperforms the one in Canada. Some people are better off. Unemployment is down. CEO pay rose 37 percent while workers’ wages shrank by 0.6 percent. Never before have average wages fallen as the economy grew. The number of people living in poverty also rose, another first for an economic expansion.
We’ve fixed little even of what we acknowledged was broken in 2009. Banks we called too big to fail are bigger now; the 10 biggest now control over 50 percent of all our financial assets. JPMorgan Chase deposits have grown 29 percent. Small banks, on the other hand, are an endangered species. In 1995 we had over 12, 000 banks. Today there are fewer than 7,000, the fewest since the Great Depression.
via What would Paul Krugman do: Imagining the plan which defeats the ultra-rich – Salon.com.
‘The only concert grand piano in war-ravaged Gaza has been rediscovered and brought back to life after years of neglect. It survived last year’s war with Israel – though only just – but was unplayable until a restorer arrived on a special mission from France, and paved the way for a rare concert…’
via Saving Gaza’s only grand piano – BBC News.
watch the video…
‘…These are just a few of the suspicious signs that the Transportation Security Administration directs its officers to look out for — and score — in airport travelers, according to a confidential TSA document obtained exclusively by The Intercept….’
via Exclusive: TSA’s Secret Behavior Checklist to Spot Terrorists – The Intercept.
‘…Meanwhile, in other Iraq news, a new report has found the Iraq War has killed about one million people. The Nobel Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and other groups examined the toll from the so-called war on terror in three countries—Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The investigators found the war has, directly or indirectly, killed around one million people in Iraq, 220,000 in Afghanistan and 80,000 in Pakistan, a total of about 1.3 million….’
The Evil Genius and the Canadian Manchurian Candidate
