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Political
Timing: When
did Obama know
where OBL was?
Was killing
OBL a campaign
stunt
calculated to
up his sagging
ratings?
According to
USA Today:
“Pakistan has
shared
information
about Osama
bin Laden's
compound
hide-out with
the CIA
and other
friendly
intelligence
agencies since
2009, the
Pakistan
Foreign
Ministry says
Pakistani
Foreign
Secretary
Salman Bashir
made the same
point
in an
interview with
the BBC,
emphasizing
that the
compound in
Abbottabad
where bin
Laden was
killed had
been
identified as
suspicious
"some time
ago" by
Pakistan's
intelligence
service, known
as ISI. Here
is a key
excerpt from a
lengthy
statement
Tuesday by the
Pakistan
Foreign
Ministry:
‘Abbottabad
and the
surrounding
areas have
been under
sharp focus of
intelligence
agencies since
2003 resulting
in highly
technical
operation by
ISI which led
to the arrest
of high value
Al Qaeda
target in
2004. As far
as the target
compound is
concerned, ISI
had been
sharing
information
with CIA and
other friendly
intelligence
agencies since
2009’”.
Now, Obama
follows the
carefully
calculated
assassination
of OBL with a
visit to the
Twin Towers
leveled on
9/11 and
places a
wreath there.
Some would see
this as
political
theatre for
the cameras
and no more
than just
another stop
on the
campaign
trail.
Iran: One of
the World’s
Rising
Powers
The turmoil
in the
Middle East
and the
overthrow of
Mubarak and
the
President of
Tunisia and
other
activists in
the “Arab
awakening”
appear to be
enhancing
Iran’s
status in
the Muslim
communities
around the
world
furthering
Iran’s goal
of becoming
a world
power.
Forces are
aligning
that appear
to advance
Iran. The
new Egyptian
government
is
attempting
to ally with
Iran.
Moreover,
according to
Press TV
Turkmenistan's
Foreign
Minister
Rashid
Meredov
was
quoted as
saying
“Relations
between
Turkmenistan
and Iran are
all
political,
cultural and
social
fields and
are
currently at
a high
level.”
Meredov
noted
“Discussions
with the
Iranian
foreign
minister
were very
constructive.”
As cultural
and
political
interests
draw a
number of
countries
closer to
Iran,
anti-American
sentiment
contributes
to the
potential
for these
alliances.
Iran,
America’s
nemesis, is
supporting
the Syrian
crackdown on
protestors.
Directly
opposing
Iran, US
Ambassador
Susan Rice
termed the
violence
against
Syrian
protesters
as
“outrageous”.
Adding to
political
conflicts
with Iran,
many are
concerned
about Iran’s
increasing
military
capabilities.
This week
Iran
announced it
would
increase the
range of its
missiles in
a bid to
boost the
capabilities
of its
country’s
armed
forces.
Doesn't
Believe for
One Second
Iran's Program
is Peaceful
Despite
providing no
new evidence
to the
contrary, US
Joint Chiefs
of Staff
Chairman
Admiral
Michael Mullen
says he “doesn’t
believe for a
second”
that Iran’s
nuclear
program is for
peaceful
purposes, and
reiterated
that the US is
considering
attacking Iran
over it.
More.
The
Trouble
With
Asking
China to
Act Like
the U.S.
A
fundamental
tenet
of
foreign
policy
says
that
nations
will
seldom
voluntarily
act
against
what
they
have
determined,
for
whatever
reason,
to
be
their
own
national
interest.
More
South
Korean
officials
are
promising
“enormous
retaliation”
against
North
Korea
after
an
hour-long
clash
between
the
two
nations
left
two
South
Korean
Marines
and
two
civilians dead
and
a
number
of
others
wounded.
Reports
of
casualties
on
the
North
Korean
side
have
yet
to
be
confirmed.
More
US Ready to 'Pitch In' as South Threatens Retaliation
News of the clash on the Korean Peninsula sent stock markets plummeting the world over and led a number of officials to try to defuse the escalating tensions as South Korea threatens “massive retaliation” that could spark a huge war. More
UN calls for investigation of Israel and Hamas for war crimes
Although it appears obvious that both Israel and Hamas targeted civilians, Israel says report is biased. US will block any investigation when it gets to security council.
Pakistan under attack
The Taliban strike the heart of Pakistan in five attacks killing 40 people as Pakistan prepares for a military assault on Taliban strongholds.
Weapons for Georgia
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili urged the United States on Tuesday to supply his country with advanced defensive weapons, warning on the eve of a visit by Vice President Biden that a decision not to provide such arms would encourage a Russian invasion.
More
Obama Offers Russia Deal on Iran in Secret Letter
President Obama sent a secret letter to
Russia’s president last month suggesting that he would back off deploying a new missile defense system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop
Iran from developing long-range weapons, American officials said Monday.
More
Case of voter intimidation dropped
The DOJ dropped a case against three Black Panthers for voter intimidation during the 2008 presidential elections. The three stood outside a voting station dressed in black wearing black berets. One carried a stick which he hit into one of his hands.
More Obama incites racial tensions
Obama automatically concluded without the facts that Gates was a victim of racism and that the police "acted stupidly." This is racism. Snap judgments based upon color.
More
Rising casualties raise doubts abroad on war
Rising casualties in Afghanistan are raising doubts among U.S. allies about the conduct of the war, forcing some governments to defend publicly their commitments and foreshadowing possible long-term trouble for the U.S. effort to bring in more resources to defeat the Taliban. More.
Protests Continue in
Iran
Three weeks after the
Iranian elections
protest continue despite
Iranian crackdowns
Speed Bumps Hit Gitmo
Closing
It is easier said than
done. Trial, threat, and
relocation issues plaque
Obama in closing
Gauntanamo Bay detention
camp.
Barack Obama's World
Barack Obama's arrival
on the world stage has
been more than the entry
of a young, popular
president who offers a
new and more generous
spirit in America
foreign policy. Almost
everywhere he has gone -
from Berlin to Cairo,
from London to Accra -
he has been
treated
almost as a young god,
sent to redeem a wicked
and a suffering world. More
Netanyahu Defends
Israel's Sovereignty
Prime Minister rebuffs
U.S. opposition to
Israeli construction in
a mostly Palestinian
area, says Jews have
right to live "in all
parts of Jerusalem."
More
Obama at NAACP: "the pain of discrimination is
still felt in America
Obama was the
first black president to ever speak before the
NAACP. (obviously). In one of Obama's most
passionate speeches he place special
emphasis on racism in America.
Confirmation Hearings Begin for Judge Sonia
Sotomayor
Confirmation
hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia
Sotomayor begin on July 13th with opening
statements by members of the Senate Judiciary
Cmte. and introductions of Judge Sotomayor by
New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten
Gillibrand.
More
Excuses are not results
Making good on campaign promises may prove more difficult for Obama that making them. So far, a lot of excuses. It's to early, we had incomplete information, it's someone else's fault, etc., are not results. The patience of the American people is limited.
Obama on World Tour
Like a man running for president of the world Barack Obama storms the globe delivering his patented version of hope with his notable charisma and as master of a special inspirational brew. Yet, many American's now question whether he is just another promise anything politician who doesn't deliver. The world may be in for a big let down.
Iraq secures cities for US exit
|
The US still has about 133,000 troops in Iraq
The Iraqi authorities are tightening security in preparation for next Tuesday's deadline for US soldiers to pull out of the country's cities.
All police leave has been cancelled and extra troops have been drafted in, amid a spate of bomb attacks this week which has left 250 people dead.
More |
Let them have water in Gaza
Israeli bombing of Gaza infrastructure creates crisis of clean water shortage. More
Leahy Wants Probe of Bush
Senator Patrick Leahy (D) wants committee to investigate the Bush administration on taking the U.S. into Iraq. Obama wants to look forward not backward, but, says people must be accountable for crimes.
ACORN's Stimulus
With a new president ensconced in the White House, it's time to roll out the goodies for loyal supporters in left-of-center political advocacy groups such as ACORN. More
Rebuilding Gaza a Political Minefield
With
much
of
Gaza
lying
in
ruin,
the
international
community
faces
both
physical
and
political
challenges
in
the
daunting
task
of
its
rebuilding.
More
Obama: Tough decisions on
Iraq, Afghanistan loom
Emerging from his first
Pentagon briefing as
president, Barack Obama said
Wednesday that his
administration faces
"difficult decisions" about
Iraq and Afghanistan. But
the new commander in chief
offered no
further details about his
plans as the U.S. carries on
wars in both countries.
More
Violence flares in Iraq ahead of
elections
A
string of politically-targeted
attacks took place on Tuesday across
Iraq, as the country gears up for
provincial council elections on
January.
More
Rove
Subpoenaed
House
Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.)
subpoenaed former White House senior adviser Karl
Rove, a sign that Democrats are not letting go of
investigations the Bush administration stonewalled.
More
Why not
Afghanistan "once again"?
Very few are
questioning whether 30,000 more troops should be
added in Afghanistan. Someone should.
Barrack Obama is
Now President of the United States
Amidst elation not seen
in decades, if ever, Barrack Obama, was sworn in as
President of the United States "twice" due to miscues
between he and Chief Justice Roberts during the
original ceremony on January 20th.
Palestine
Attempts to Rebuild after 22 days of Bombing by
Israel
It is estimated that
the damages done to Palestinian infrastructure
amounts to approximately 2 billion dollars. Saudi
Arabia has already donated 1 billon dollars and
others will help. The reconstruction, under normal
circumstances would take about 5 years. However,
Israel intends to make it difficult blocking the
import of construction materials and conducting inspections in
the name of security.
Obama: "I won"
In a bipartisan
meeting this week concerning the stimulus bill, when
others expressed their ideas, Obama let the
dissenters know: "I won." Obama staffers have been
reminding those on the Hill that he won and is very
popular. Some think the "I won" statement is
tantamount to Bush saying he was "the decider."
Will Obama Push
for Missiles in Poland?
A thorn in the side
of Russia and American foreign policy, if it is to
change, it the Bush administrations agreement to put
missiles in Poland. Russia has reacted adversely and
Secretary of Defense Gates has in essence given them
the finger. As Russia moves a ship into a Cuban
harbor and plays naval games off the coast of
Venezuela, will Obama reinforce what some call a bad
move.
Afghanistan will last longer than
Vietnam
The newly-appointed US special envoy for Pakistan and
Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, has said that the Obama
administration had to face many tough challenges with regard
to the war in Afghanistan and global peace but the toughest
was the insurgent sanctuaries in the tribal areas of
Pakistan.
More
Thoughts to Consider
Decisions
should be based upon reason and reason upon evidence.
Evidence must go beyond mere accusation. Otherwise, our
fears become proof.
More
Short Shot Archives
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Almost eight years after choosing Hamid Karzai to
head the Afghan government, Uncle Sam would like to give him a
pink slip. But it’s not easy.
And the grim fiasco of Afghanistan’s last
election is shadowing the next.
Another display of electioneering and voting has been ordered up
from Washington. But after a chemical mix has blown a hole
through the roof -- with all the elements for massive fraud
still in place -- what’s the point of throwing together the same
ingredients?
Full Article>>
Obama's "Iran First"
Policy
By
D. Lindley Young
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TMT) (10/20) -
In the 2008 Presidential
campaign Barack Obama
sold peace in one hand
and war in the other. It
has now become clear
that Obama held out the
peace for all to see in
the light of day while
he prepared for wars in
what some would call the
shadows.
The Obama kabuki dance
is heading towards an
historic finish – war
with Iran sometime next
summer.
Full Article >>
Presidential Power Grows
Will You Love Every
Future President?
By David Swanson
Presidential power has
been on a
pathway of
expansion beyond what
the Constitution
outlined, and what a
government of, by, and
for the people requires,
since George Washington
was president. That
expansion, which hit the
highway after World War
II, got a
turbo boost
during the co-presidency
of
George W. Bush
and
Dick Cheney.
Some of the new powers
that those two stole
from Congress, the
courts, the states, and
us the people are being
abused less severely in
this new age of Obama;
others, more so; but far
more crucially, in a
pattern followed by
recent presidencies,
all are being
maintained, if not
expanded, and thus more
firmly cemented into
place for future
presidents to use.
Wherever you fall on the
political spectrum, you
are likely to strongly
oppose some major
decisions of some future
presidents. So it
shouldn't be hard to
envision some pretty
undesirable consequences
that might flow from
presidential power that
increasingly approaches
the absolute.
Full
Article
>>
The Lie of the Century -
The spin for War with
Iran
By D. Lindley Young
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TMT)
(9/28) - The question.
How may times do you
have to tell a lie
before it becomes the
truth? Answer. A lie
never becomes the truth
no matter how many times
it is told.
The media and
politicians, especially
Netanyahu, keep saying
that Iranian President
Ahmadinejad has said
"he" will "wipe Israel
off the map." This a a
lie no matter how many
times it is said.
At
a seminar on a world
without Zionism, not
without Jews, but,
without the cult that
believes that Palestine
has no right to exist
because of Isreali
biblical claims to the
land on which Israel and
Palestine exist.
The seminar took place
before the word "zionist'
was redefined to mean
the Jewist identity. At
the time of
Ahmadinejad's speech at
the seminar "A World
without Zionism," it
meant those Jews that
made biblical claims to
Palestine. So, it could
be said that the issue
was then picturing a
"world in which people
did not refuse to
recognize Palestine's
right to exist."
In any event,
Ahmadinejad quoted from
the Ayatollah Khemeni
and, depending upon the
interpretation, said,
quoting Ayatollah
Khemeni as saying he
hoped Israel would
"vanish" or "collapse."
Ahmadinejad did not say
"he" was going to "wipe
Israel off the map."
There is a world of
difference from
Ahmadinejad quoted from
the Ayatollah Khemeni
and the lie being told
that Ahmadinejad said
"he" would "wipe Israel
off the wipe."
Juan Cole, President of
the Global Americana
Institute, put it this
way :
"It was apparently some
Western wire service
that mistranslated the
phrase as 'wipe Israel
off the map', which
sounds rather more
violent than calling for
regime change. Since
then, Iranian media
working in English have
themselves depended on
that translation. One of
the tricks of
Right-Zionist
propagandists is to
substitute these English
texts for Ahmadinejad's
own Persian text."
Cole continued, "What is
really going on here is
an old trick of the
warmongers. Which is
that you equate hurtful
statements of your enemy
with an actual military
threat, and make a weak
and vulnerable enemy
look like a strong,
menacing foe. Then no
one can complain when
you pounce on the enemy
and reduce his country
to flames and rubble."
"It is obvious that
powerful political
forces in Washington are
fishing for a pretext to
launch a war on Iran,
and that they are just
delighted to have
Ahmadinejad as cartoon
villain and pretext."
See full article:
http://www.juancole.com/2007/06/ahmadinejad-i-am-not-anti-semitic.html
Arash Norouzi wrote
'Wiped off the Map' –
The Rumor of the
Century." See http://www.antiwar.com/orig/norouzi.php?articleid=11025
"Amid heated wrangling
over Iran's nuclear
program, and months of
continuous, unfounded
accusations against Iran
in an attempt to rally
support for preemptive
strikes against the
country, the
imperialists had just
been handed the perfect
raison d'être to invade.
To the war hawks, it was
a gift from the skies."
Even if every media
outlet in the world were
to retract the
mistranslated quote
tomorrow, the major
damage has already been
done, providing the
groundwork for the next
phase of disinformation:
complete character
demonization. But, if
war is the goal, join
in. Our politicians and
the media know the
truth, but, are helping
those who are lying our
way into war with Iran
There are other articles,
if the truth matters to
you. See:
http://goatmilk.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/israel-wiped-off-the-map-lost-in-translation
Also, listen to Salute America
at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saluteamerica
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Iran in arms
race with Israel |
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By Paul Beaver
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Iran is one of the world's
most significant nations in terms of history, culture
and intellectual capacity, and is matched in the Middle
East perhaps only by Israel.
It is a small wonder,
then, that when Iran's hard-line and irascible president
talks of building military capability and destroying
Israel, Tel Aviv feels its survival is menaced and that
Tehran's regime is its nemesis.
For all of its 61 years
in existence, Israel has considered itself in a
permanent war of survival. It has developed a national
system which places great emphasis on its military and
intelligence capabilities.
Starting from scratch,
Israel has developed technologies which are truly
world-leading, especially in the delivery of shock and
awe on any potential enemy.
Full Article>> |
The Incredible Shrinking
Healthcare Reform
By Norman Solomon
Like soap in a rainstorm, “healthcare reform” is wasting away.
As August began, a leading follower of conventional wisdom,
journalist Cokie Roberts, told NPR listeners: “This is evolving
legislation. And the administration is now talking about a glide
path towards universal coverage, rather than immediate universal
coverage.”
Notions of universal healthcare are fading in the power centers
of politics -- while more and more attention focuses on the care
and feeding of the insurance industry.
Full Article>>
Salting the Race Issue and Defending Professor Gates
By D. Lindley Young
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TMT)
(7/23)- Barack Obama doesn’t miss an
opportunity to make race an issue.
Lynn Sweet, a
Sun-Times columnist, ask about Obama about the arrest of noted
Harvard African-American studies Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
at his home during a press conference on health care.
Sweet asked, "What
does that incident say to you? And what does it say about race
relations in America?"
Full Article>>
The
Risks of a Partial
Prosecution
By David Swanson
If Attorney General
Eric Holder creates
a special prosecutor
for torture but
forbids him or her
to prosecute the
lawyers who
facilitated torture
or the top officials
who ordered it,
proposing to go
after only torturers
who exceeded the
limitations outlined
in the lawyers'
memos, what are the
risks?
Full Article>>
When
Transparency is
Blinding
By D. Lindley
Young
WASHINGTON, D.C.
(7/22) - Is
there a point
where a promised
transparency and
the so-called
commitment open,
honest truth in
government and
to an informed
public, actually
is the flash in
the eyes which
blinds us to the
truth? Yes. When
we trust someone
that is a flim-flam
man - who is
just another
same ole
politician we
tried to get rid
of - says he is
committed to
transparency.
If it is like
other Obama
promises, it
means very
little. He will
pretend to be
transparent with
one hand while
hiding his
actions with the
other. Only time
will tell.
Full Article>>
Afghan Massacre: More Bad Apples?
By William Fisher
A prominent human rights group is calling on the U.S. Department
of Justice to investigate why the administration of former
President George W. Bush blocked three different probes into war
crimes in Afghanistan where as many as 2,000 surrendered Taliban
fighters were reportedly suffocated in container trucks and then
buried in a mass grave by Afghan forces operating jointly with
American forces.
Full Article>>
The deceitful
promises of
Barack Obama
By D. Lindley
Young
WASHINGTON, D.C.
(7/21) - Deceit
is what we call
promises one
makes which they
never intend to
perform them.
It's hard to
prove since it
deals with a
persons state of
mind - what they
were thinking -
whether they
ever intended to
do what they
promised.
The way deceit
is proved is by
circumstantial
evidence. And
generally that
proof rests in
the failure to
do what was
promised. If
this is enough,
a failure to do
what you
promised, then,
at least on the
"change,"
particularly on
foreign policy,
Obama is guilty
of deceit. But,
maybe some, the
true believers,
want more.
Here's part of
the case.
Full
Article>>
Sotomayor Poised Amid Senatorial
Jousting
By William Fisher
NEW YORK, Jul 14 (IPS) - Tuesday, the first full day of questions
from members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee considering
the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, was
remarkable mainly for the softball questions asked by her
Democratic supporters and the snarky, "gotcha" questions posed by
her Republican opponents.
Full Article>>
Looking Back to
Protect the
Future
By D. Lindley
Young
WASHINGTON, D.C.
(TMT) (7/11) -
The Republicans
tout the rule of
law as their
moral banner,
but, now argue
that it should
not be applied
to George W.
Bush because we
need to look to
the future. This
is, as the
saying goes:
complete
baloney.
It is the height
of hypocrisy to
argue we should
not look back at
the Bush
administration's
war crimes, FISA
violations,
disregard for
the War Powers
Act of 1973, the
National
Security Act of
1947,
constitutional
violations, and
other high
crimes and
misdemeanors, if
they really
believe that
rule of law is
important, or
that it matters
at all.
Full Article>>
Escalation
Scam: Troops in
Afghanistan
By Norman
Solomon
WASHINGTON, D.C.
(6/10) - The
president has
set a limit on
the number of
U.S. troops in
Afghanistan. For
now.
That’s how
escalation
works. Ceilings
become floors.
Gradually.
A few times
since last fall,
the Obama team
has floated
rising numbers
for how many
additional U.S.
soldiers will be
sent to
Afghanistan.
Now, deployment
of 21,000 more
is a done deal,
with a new total
cap of 68,000
U.S. troops in
that country.
Full Article>>
Afghan Prisoners
at U.S.
Airbase in Legal
Limbo
By William
Fisher
NEW YORK, Jul 8
(IPS) -
Following a loss
in federal
court, the
organisation
representing
detainees held
by the U.S.
without charge
at Bagram prison
in Afghanistan
called on the
Barack Obama
administration
to "reverse the
flawed policies
of the previous
Bush White
House" and end
the indefinite
detention
without trial of
Afghan civilians
held in U.S.
custody.
Full Article>>
Reading the
Rules of
Disengagement
By David Swanson
Should soldiers
follow illegal
orders? Should
they take part
in illegal wars
and occupations?
And if they
don't want to do
so, what choices
do they have?
And what can we
do to help them?
These are some
of the questions
addressed in a
new book by
Marjorie Cohn
and Kathleen
Gilberd called
"Rules of
Disengagement:
The Politics and
Honor of
Military
Dissent."
Full Article>>
One Sided is
one sided,
no matter
what side
you are on.
By D.
Lindley
Young
WASHINGTON,
D.C.
(TMT) (6/28)
- US
President Barack
Obama is
taking
fire
from all
sides on
his
position,
or some
would
say lack
of it,
on Iran.
Some say
he
hasn’t
done
enough
and
others
say he
has done
too
much:
the US
is
meddling.
Full Article >>
Torture
Photos
Already
Released
A little over three years ago, SBS Dateline, an Australian television program, released leaked photographs from the U.S. prison in Iraq, Abu Ghraib. It is believed that the pictures being held back by the Obama administration may include some of these shots that most of the US press ignored, although RAW STORY ran them in 2006.
Full Article >>
Why
Are
We
Still
at
War?
By
Norman
Solomon
The
United
States
began
its
war
in
Afghanistan
88
months
ago.
“The
war
on
terror”
has
no
sunset
clause.
As a
perpetual
emotion
machine,
it
offers
to
avenge
what
can
never
heal
and
to
fix
grief
that
is
irreparable.
For
the
crimes
against
humanity
committed
on
Sept.
11,
2001,
countless
others
are
to
follow,
with
huge
conceits
about
technological
“sophistication”
and
moral
superiority.
But
if
we
scrape
away
the
concrete
of
media
truisms,
we
may
reach
substrata
where
some
poets
have
dug.
Full Article >>
Will
War
Ever
End?
By
David
Swanson
I
wrote
recently
about
the
possibility of
out
growing
the
use
of
war.
Today
I
got
a
in
the
mail
that
makes
a
strong
argument
intended
as a
tool
for
ending
war.
The
book
is
called
"Will
War
Ever
End:
A
Soldier's
Vision
of
Peace
for
the
21st
Century"
by
Captain
Paul
K.
Chappell,
U.S.
Army.
It's
short,
more
of a
hardcover
pamphlet
than
a
book,
but
it
is
packed
with
ideas.
Full Article >>
Mullen:
Using
force
against
Iran
still
an
option
JERUSALEM
(1/29)
American
military
force
against
Iran
remains
an
option,
though
it
would
be a
"last
resort,"
US
Adm.
Mike
Mullen,
chairman
of
the
Joint
Chiefs
of
Staff,
said
in
response
to a
question
from
The
Jerusalem
Post
Tuesday.
Mullen
emphasized,
however,
the
importance
he
placed
on
engagement
with
the
Islamic
Republic,
particularly
when
it
came
to
Afghanistan,
at
the
same
time
that
he
called
for
stricter
UN
resolutions
to
block
Iran's
weapons
smuggling
abilities.
In a
rare
press
conference
with
the
foreign
media
Tuesday,
he
alluded
to a
recent
US
interception
of a
ship
sailing
under
a
Cypriot
flag
with
weapons
that
America
believed
had
come
from
Iran
and
were
heading
toward
Syria,
"where
we
think
they
will
get
in
the
next
day
or
so."
Full Article >>
Russia
Offers
Obama
Olive
Branch
on
Missiles:
Report
By
Reuters
Russia has halted a plan to retaliate against a proposed U.S. missile defense shield by stationing its own missiles near Europe's borders, a Russian news agency quoted the military as saying on Wednesday.
The suspension of plans to deploy tactical missiles in the Western outpost of Kaliningrad, if confirmed, would show Russia is extending an olive branch to President Barack Obama after rocky relations under his predecessor.
Full Article >>
A
Bibi-Barack Collision?
By Patrick J. Buchanan
|
WASHINGTON,
D.C. (1/2) - "There there is no
solution, there is no problem,"
geostrategist James Burnham once wryly
observed.
Ex-Sen. George Mitchell, the latest U.S.
negotiator to take up the Palestine
portfolio, may discover what it was that
Burnham meant. For Israel's three-week
war on Gaza, where Palestinians died at
a rate of 100 to one to Israelis,
appears to have been, like Israel's wars
in Lebanon, another Pyrrhic victory for
the Jewish state.
Full Article >>
|
Is Egypt Listening?
By William Fisher
NEW YORK (1/27)
-
You may have missed
it because it was ignored by virtually the entire
the American mainstream press, but there's a really
creepy irony that accompanied President Obama's
decision to close Guantanamo and end torture, secret
prisons and extraordinary rendition.
The irony is that some
of the most lavish praise for Obama came from the
press in countries that most of us would find,
what shall we say, paradoxical. Countries that for
many
years have been the
poster boys for unlawful detention, torture, secret
prisons and "disappeared" prisoners. Countries in a
part of the world that has been a consistent
destination for those rendered by our CIA.
Full Article >>
44 Years Later, LBJ’s Ghost Hovers Over the 44th
President
By Norman Solomon
SAN FRANCISCO (1/26) -
A few days after the inauguration, in a piece
celebrating the arrival of the Obama administration,
New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote that the
new president has clearly signaled: “No more crazy
wars.”
Full Article >>
Dangerous
Executive Orders
By David Swanson
WASHINGTON, D.C. (1/24) - The Center for
Constitutional Rights has expressed concern that
President Obama's executive order banning torture
may contain a loophole. But no president has any
right to declare torture legal or illegal, with or
without loopholes. And if we accept that presidents
have such powers, even if our new president does
good with them, then loopholes will be the
least of our worries.
Full Article >>
|
Contact us
editor@themoderntriune.com
Netanyahu_Defends_Israel's_Sovereignty_Jerusalem.htm
New
Page 1 |
Obama's Middle East
Policy a Failure
Day after day
passes with more slaughter
of demonstrators
and opposition in the streets of Libya without
any serious objection from the White House.
There is a stale-mate in Libya and Jordan where
neither country can get a handle on a new wave
of protestors. It appears that the “Arab
Awakening” is advancing the power of Iran and
certain terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and
the Muslim Brotherhood. In Bahrain and
especially in Yemen, anti-American and
anti-western forces fill the vacuum created by
the weakening of an ouster of governments.
Obama’s policies seem to be backfiring on Egypt
as those forming Egypt’s new government reach
out to Iran and are establishing diplomatic
ties. The Muslim Brotherhood has been talking
about getting Egyptians ready for “War with
Israel” in January.
Tennessee to Help Banks Take Peoples Homes
US Chinese tensions not
new - Chinese vessels harassed the USNS
Impeccable last March
North Korea warns
region is on brink of war
Poll: How should the
U.S. engage with North Korea?
South Korea's defense
chief resigns; troops on the move
North Korea warns
region is on brink of war
Palin's Presidential
Qualifications
Maliki begins
government formation in Iraq
Israel Could Strike
Iran
Russia S-300 Sale to
Iran
U.S. Sale of weapons to
Taiwan
New Poll: Most
Americans Oppose Both Wars
Taliban video shows
captured U.S. soldier
Israeli Soldiers Admit
Using Human Shields
US Battles for Control
of Helmand, Afghanistan
See Inspector General's
report on Bush surveillance
Cheney 'ordered CIA to
hide plan'
Challenges loom as
Obama seeks space weapons ban
Obama goes to bat for
Bush wiretap program
Obama versus Bush on
the weaponization of space reveals no change
What is Obama's
Rendition Policy
West may be Offering to
Endorse Israeli Attack on Iran as Part of
Settlement Deal
Obama approves sale of
Weapons to Taiwan
Bush: Above the Law or
Beyond its Reach?
Amicus Brief on Bush
violation of War Powers Act of 1973 - Iraq posed
no "imminent threat."
CIA Fights Full Release
Of Detainee Report
Obama speaks of hopes
for Africa
America threatens
Russia with plans for missiles in Poland
US launches Helmand
offensive against Taliban
Israeli navy arrests
passengers on Free Gaza Movement boat
Barack Obama: US
prepared for North Korea threats
Turning point for Iran?
The Lie of the Century
- The spin for War with Iran
N. Korea threatens to
harm U.S. if attacked
Iran pledges a 'crushing' response to US
critiques
Ahmadinejad pledges 'crushing' response if Obama
continues criticism of postelection crackdown.
More
Obama contemplates Executive Order for detention
without charges
When Obama first unveiled his "preventive
detention" policy, many defenders praised him
(and claimed he was different than Bush) because
of his vow that -- as
he put it -- "my Administration will
work with Congress to develop an
appropriate legal regime." But now,....
More
Obama Says Failing to Act Could Lead to a
‘Catastrophe’
President Obama took his case for his $800
billion economic recovery package to the
American people on Monday, as the Senate cleared
the way for passage of the bill and the White
House prepared for its next major hurdle:
selling Congress and the public on a fresh plan
to bail out the nation’s banks.
More
Iraqis vote.
New Era?
Iraqis across the country voted Saturday in
provincial elections that will help shape their
future, but regardless of the outcome it is
clear that the Americans are already drifting
offstage — and that most Iraqis are ready to see
them go.
More
17k More US Troops to Afghanistan
Testifying on Capitol Hill today, Defense
Secretary Robert Gates told the Senate Armed
Services Committee that there is little doubt
that Aghanistan is the greatest military
challenge for the US right now. More
Iraq Bans Blackwater
The Iraqi government
has informed the US embassy today
that it will decline to renew Blackwater
Worldwide’s license to operate in the nation.
This will require the security contractors,
still being used by the State Department, to
leave the nation once the joint US-Iraq
committee finishes drawing up its formal
guidelines for contractors.
More
China: US arms sales to Taiwan 'harm' to
relations
China made a rare appeal for cooperation between
its normally secretive military and Washington
on Tuesday but said U.S. arms sales to Taiwan
remain a "serious harm to Sino-U.S. relations."
The statements came as China issued a major
policy paper on national defense that said
blocking formal Taiwanese independence remains
the chief concern for one of the world's
fastest-growing armed forces.
More
Egypt to Hamas: Take Gaza Truce Before Likud
Takes Over in Israel
The Egyptian government is
reportedly pressing Hamas to hurry up and agree
to a ceasefire with Israel’s outgoing
Kadima-led government before next month’s
elections. Several terms are yet to be agreed
upon by both sides, but they have maintained a
ceasefire for over a week and negotiations
continue.
More
Netanyahu:
Settlements
would grow
Front-runner in Israel's upcoming election says
he'd expand Jewish West Bank settlements if he's
elected premier, threatening to put him at odds
with the Obama administration.
More
Senate confirms Geithner as Secretary of
Treasury
The Senate voted today to confirm Tim Geithner
as the next treasury secretary amid ongoing
uncertainty about the nation's economic future.
Geithner, who will spearhead President Obama's
response to the financial crisis that threatens
to unravel economic growth around the globe, won
approval by a vote of 60 to 34.
More
U.S. missiles "don't help" Pakistan war effort
U.S missile attacks on Islamist militants in
Pakistan do not help its efforts in the U.S.-led
campaign against militancy, a spokesman for
President Asif Ali Zardari said on Sunday.
More
Obama’s Stance on Gaza Crisis “Approximately the
Bush Position”
In a visit to the State Department Thursday,
President Obama made his first substantive
comments on the Middle East conflict since
Israel’s attack on Gaza.
More
Pakistan urges Obama to halt missile attacks
Pakistan urged President Barack Obama to halt
U.S. missile strikes on al-Qaida strongholds
near the Afghan border, saying Saturday that
civilians were killed the previous day in the
first attacks since Obama's inauguration.
More
A shameful war: Israel in the dock over assault
on Gaza
By the time the shooting stopped, more than 100
Palestinians had been killed for every Israeli
who died.
More
Issue of terrorists' rights to test Obama's
pledge
More
|
| |
|
Manufactured Crisis
By D. Lindley Young
WASHINGTON (PRS) - A wise man once said “If you rob Peter to pay Paul you’ll have a lot of Pauls”. That seems, at least in part, to be the debate over the debt ceiling or so called debt “crisis”. As Obama jockeys for position in the 2012 presidential campaign, its is about the "blame." Let's say that Obama exacerbated America's financial by pitting Americas against each other. His campaign moves in the direction of division not unity. He pits the haves and the have nots, the poor and the rich, and the rich and the super-rich,, democrats against republicans, liberals against conservatives as a Robin Hood mentality emerges where wealth is taken from the rich and redistributed to the poor becomes more prominent. Full Article>>
Iraq Update: Not what we hoped for
By D. Lindley Young
However, the seeds that we sow do not always reap the crop we intended. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki sits atop a country which reportedly has rape rooms and torture chambers and one in which a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites takes the lives of hundreds and hundreds of people on a regular basis.
This is not what America bargained for when George Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq for the ostensible purpose of giving the people of Iraq freedom and democracy. Now, Iraq is the forgotten war, out of the headlines, and out of the minds of the American people.
Inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, thousands of Iraqis have taken to the streets to criticize their government’s failure to combat corruption, create more jobs, or improve electricity and other services. Yet, the Iraqi people can’t even protest the lack of competence of their government without the threat of reprisals. Apparently Mr. Maliki is taking his ruling style from the playbook of Omar Gaddafi in Libya and is punishing protestors who oppose his regime.
According to The New York Times March 13th 2011 report “Instead of taking responsibility Mr. Maliki charged that the protests were organized by ‘terrorists.’ He ordered the closing of the offices of two political parties that helped lead the demonstrations. His only concessions were vows not to seek a third term in 2014 and to cut pay in half. This was not persuasive, especially given his many recent power grabs. It has been on year since national elections and three months since Mr. Maliki and Opposition leader Ayad Allawi finally ended their destructive impasse and formed a government. Yet Mr. Maliki has still not filled his cabinet positions -most notably he has named a Defense Minister or Interior Minister. Instead he is personally overseeing the power and often abusive army and police forces. That concentration of clout is corrosive.
Especially to a fragile, new democracy”.
America has built the largest embassy in the world on 168 acres and is staffed 1,000 diplomats and staff. America built four mega military bases that can house 50,000 American troops. Based upon the quarters for 50,000 American troops - it is hard to believe that America will ever have less than 50,000 troops in Iraq - despite Obama committing to get all American troops out of Iraq.
America took the ground and we do not have the tendency to remove our flag once planted. As a result of our substantial presence, we cannot deny the knowledge of what’s going on in Iraq and according to Obama’s “responsibility to protect” we should correct the abuses imposed on the Iraqi people by what appears to be a corrupt incompetent government made possible by us.
America has a vested interest based upon the lives and treasure spent by America in seeing that Iraq is a nation of free people and democracy before we go off to the next adventure in democracy with the war in Libya. It is a basic concept that one should clean up the kitchen before going off to cook the next meal.
Compound where Osama bin Laden was killed is becoming an attraction
Killing Osama bin Laden: The Consequences
By D. Lindley Young
Originally Published in The Knoxville Journal
Sometimes death creates historic myths and questions that traverse through history. Many are still debating who shot John Kennedy. Others question whether John Wilkes Booth worked alone on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. There are situations where in death certain people are elevated to some kind of mythical status beyond what or who, they really were.
Many questions surround the killing, if not assassination, of Osama Bin Laden. President Obama said “Justice has been done”. International reaction is mixed. Some believe the assassination of Osama Bin Laden was a killing of what they perceived to be a “good man”. Perspective and perception are the whole thing. While Americans exuded jubilation dancing in the streets, chanting “USA, USA, USA”, others in the Middle East and the Muslim world were hostile to what may be termed as dancing on the grave of Osama Bin Laden. To them, it is no different than our reaction to those celebrating the 9/11 attack upon America killing approximately 3,000 innocent civilians.
While it is generally accepted in America that Osama Bin Laden was responsible for the bombings of embassies in Kenya and Tanzania resulting in hundreds of deaths, the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen resulting in the death of 17 US soldiers, 9/11, the tube attacks in Great Britain and virtually all major terrorist attacks and suicide bombings around the world, others would argue that the evidence of Osama’s participation in these terrorist acts was, at best, scant. In fact, al-Qaeda was first learned about from an informant, of questionable reliability, and promoted in the United States. It was not until after President Bush and others accused al-Qaeda of 9/11 that Osama took up the name and positioned himself as its leader.
Osama Bin Laden may have been no more than a braggart after 9/11, trying to make himself feel important at a dinner with some friends that was recorded. Little evidence exists of Osama Bin Laden’s coordination of any of these attacks. Yes, there is no doubt that he released a lot of tapes saying what was going to happen to the United States and that he declared war on the US in 1996. Few Americans would dispute that the world is better off without Osama Bin Laden, just as the world is better off without Saddam Husain.
However, questions concerning Osama Bin Laden’s killing at the direction of President Barack Obama have already spawned conspiracy theories and legitimate debates as to the consequences of the President’s action. Some question the timing of the killing since Barack Obama had known about the location, or alleged location of Osama Bin Laden for months, if not years, and during his campaign for President in 2012 saw the opportunity to boost himself in the ratings and accent his claims of decisiveness and being a war president. In his announcement that he had killed OBL he gave scant credit to George Bush, and the dedication of many others who had tracked Bin Laden for years, and touted himself as the tip of the spear so to speak.
One of the big questions now is what will be the consequences of killing Osama Bin Laden, disposing of his body at sea, and reaction by the President, Hillary Clinton, and Americans which could be perceived as arrogance and to a degree braggadocio. For example, Hillary Clinton said “Our message to the Taliban remains the same, but today it may have even greater resonance: you cannot wait us out, you cannot defeat us, but you can make the choice to abandon al-Qaeda and participate in a peaceful political process.” This statement may be perceived as provocative, and almost a dare, for an enraged al-Qaeda, Taliban, and large portion of the Muslim world, who have hate in their hearts because the west killed what to them was a Muslim leader.
Time will tell whether killing Osama Bin Laden was worth the consequences. It was widely believed that Osama Bin Laden was more of a figurehead than one who actually plotted and carried out the terrorist attacks. Yes, there appears to be evidence that he provided financing and inspiration for atrocities committed in the name of al-Qaeda and was closely associated with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who was the mastermind of 9/11.
However, few would doubt that the killing of Osama Bin Laden will make any difference in the radical Islamic terrorists around the world. Another will rise to the top as the figurehead of al-Qaeda and some believe that al-Zawahiri may lead al-Qaeda. We will recall that OBL had urged individual jihads around the world and many attacks, or attempted attacks in the past were in response to that call for individual jihad. That individual jihad remains and the death of OBL could spur greater hostility and more attacks upon America than would have occurred absent Obama’s decision to assassinate Osama.
The Muslim brotherhood appears to be surfacing as more powerful than al-Qaeda because it organizes better in the communities and is spreading its message politically. The Muslim brotherhood has announced a war upon Israel and has said it will attack Israel in January of 2012. Many will recall that OBL, in one of his famous tapes, said that Israel will be hit before al-Qaeda, or let’s say the Muslim brotherhood, or radical Islamists around the world, and even in America, would hit America. There is concern that the death of Osama Bin Laden will elevate his status as a martyr and inspire action to fulfill his prophecy of hitting America after Israel has been attacked.
Another big question arising out of the killing of Osama Bin Laden and the location of that killing, is whether Pakistan had been covering up for Osama Bin Laden, for the past six or more years. Osama Bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, only 75 miles from capital city Islamabad, and near a Pakistani military training academy. He was located in a large house, if not a mansion, that was surrounded by 8 layers of walls as high as 18 feet and barbed wire. Although, there were numerous Pakistani generals and high military personnel living in the same neighborhood, Pakistan pretended not to know where OBL was and it is believed that members of the Pakistani government, its military, and the ISI (Inter-Service Intelligence) could not help but know where he was. For years Pakistan’s ISI has been accused of having close ties to al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and to OBL. Now, in the minds of many, doubt as to those relationships no longer exists. Pakistan took billions of dollars every year in US aid, yet, was not loyal to America and may have offered up several terrorists to convince America it was loyal in the war on terror, while such offerings were part of a plot to protect Osama Bin Laden and conceal where he was located.
Several members in Congress are calling for America to cut off foreign aid to Pakistan. "Pakistan must prove to the US that they didn't know that bin Laden was in the compound," said Joe Lieberman. He continued, "We have a lot of reason to believe that elements of their intelligence community continue to be very closely in touch with -- and perhaps supportive with -- terrorist groups that are fighting us and Afghans in Afghanistan". Senator Carl Levin chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee also commented "I think that the Pakistani army and intelligence have a lot of questions to answer," and Texas Republican Ted Poe wondered "Why do we give money to Lebanon, a country that now is controlled by Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that's firing missiles into Israel? Why do we do that?"
There are a couple of things that are for sure. One is that America must be even more vigilant in protecting our borders, intercepting plots by sleeper cells already in America, and guarding against an anti-American sentiment that may have just thrown gas on the fire. Every American eye and ear must be on the lookout as they may be the best guardians for protecting America. Full Article>>
See http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=2623
Obama: The Cheater
By D. Lindley Young
Barack Obama was supposed to be “good at caucuses”. However, if the truth be known, what he was good at was “cheating.” In other words, he cheated his way to the presidency and his manipulation of the caucuses and threats to super delegates are what made the difference.
Now, caucus states make up only 1.1 million (3%) of all democratic votes. However, the caucus states select 626 (15%) of the delegates. There are 4,048 delegates, including 795 Super- delegates.
The Super-delegates include the following: elected members of the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Governors, Democratic U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives (including non-voting delegates), distinguished party leaders (current and former Presidents and Vice Presidents); former Democratic leaders of the Senate and House; former DNC chairmen and unpledged "add-on's" chosen by the DNC.
With respect to the caucuses, Gloria Allred said “All I know is that there are numerous allegations that the caucuses were not conducted in a way that would withstand a great deal of scrutiny and there are serious allegations about what went on and I just think we need to eliminate the caucuses.” However, there are witnesses to the cheating and threats employed by Obama and his supporters.
People were threatened because they were pulling the covers off of the manipulation of the caucuses by Obama and his team and making noise about the fact that Howard Dean and the DNC approved of the unfair and deceptive practices in violation of democratic rules.
A documentary entitled We Will Not Be Silenced provides all the evidence one would need. In that documentary an anonymous African-American in Gary, Indiana reported the following, “Probably the worst thing that we saw in Gary, Indiana was parents coming into the office saying that the Gary Public School System had bussed their children to Crown Point, Indiana to vote in the election. And that’s great, that’s a great civics lesson. But if children were being told to go in and vote for Obama, which they were, their parents were outraged, they were livid and they wanted to know what could be done about this.”
He went on, “And they brought in an actual slate of candidates that each student had been given to take to the poles to vote for Mr. Obama and his slate. That was atrocious because what lesson in civics were the kids to learn by that? What, win by any means necessary? Because the right to vote is a sacred vote in America so how could we take school children, bus them on a school day, tell them who to vote for, then pay for their lunch and dismiss them early on taxpayer money? So yeah, the voter fraud was rampant in Gary.” Some of these children may not have been old enough to vote.
On film John Siegel, El Paso Area Captain said “Some people saw outright cheating, other people just saw strong arm tactics, I saw fraud.”
In the documentary We Will not be Silenced an unidentified lady said, “You’re supposed to sign these sheets and those sheets are supposed to be controlled and passed out and, you know, have you maintain order. None of that was done; the sheets were just flying all over the place. You could put in your own names; you could add your own sheets or anything. It was just filled with fraud.”
Dr. Linda Hayes found physical evidence of fraud. She quoted the New York Times, Monday, July 21st 2008 edition, “The votes for Hillary by popular vote were 1,459,000, the votes for Obama were 1,358,000. So Hillary obtained 51% of the votes in Texas, the popular vote, Obama only obtained 47.4%. So as a scientist and as a mathematician, I was curious as the results came in from the precincts and the precinct caucuses did not reflect those numbers so I could see something was wrong because the precinct caucuses did not reflect the popular vote.”
According to a Midwest Delegate at the Democratic Convention in 2008, “During the roll call vote in the morning, our state was 44-44 on the roll call. Forty-four (44) delegates for Obama, 44 delegates for Clinton. We were pressured to switch. People who held state offices were threatened with their jobs. At the end only four (4) stuck with Senator Clinton.”
Obama and his supporters did much more than manipulate the caucuses. There were actual threats and intimidation by Obama supporters against Hillary supporters .
Super delegate Roy LaVerne Brooks, the Vice Chair of the Texas Democratic Party, who supported Clinton talked about her experience, “I want to talk about a phone call that I received from one of the Senator’s camps as it relates to my race as the Chair of the Texas Democratic Party … When he called, he asked me two major questions, he said ‘Roy, I want you to know if you run, we are not going to be there for you.’” The man clarified that the ‘we,’ he was talking about was “the Obama team” which was not going to be there to support her if she supported Clinton.
A civil rights activist who marched with Martin Luther King witnessed the following, “ I was riding through the communities [of Gary Indiana] … there were some guys that had put up lawn chairs in front of the doors on the walkway going into the … community center … I stopped and parked my car. There was this lady who was walking sort of slowly up the street. And as she was approaching the entranceway going into the building. One of the men called to her, ‘If you’re not voting for Obama go home because you’re not voting here today.’ And she turned and walked away.”
She went on, “This fight is a battle that has gone on for many, many, many years. And to see two African American young men deny the right under a veiled threat of violence to a woman who is an elder, who looked to be about 80 years old and not allow her to vote I found appalling. And of course as I was standing there, there were … maybe four (4) or five (5) people approaching and when they heard that they all turned and walked away … And for two young men to just feel that the end justified the means for reaching that end caused me great grief.”
For those that want to know the truth about Obama’s manipulation of the caucuses and threatening of delegates at the Denver convention of 2008 We Will Not be Silenced is a must see.
Although, there were threats and intimidation of the participants and the producers of the film, they produced it and it presents the truth about the man so many believe in. I challenge anyone to watch We Will Not be Silenced and defend Barack Obama and his supporters for their actions in bastardizing American democracy. The use of ACORN, the public threats by Donna Brazil, Representative Clyburn, the Color of Change and Al Sharpton had to be known by Barack Obama. Yet, he said nothing. He is culpable for condoning, if not encouraging, acts appalling to most Americans. That little difference in caucuses and threats to delegates made the big difference. We cannot let it happen again. Full Article>>
Is the Chicago Way the American Way?
By D. Lindley Young
Originally published in The Knoxville Journal
When you look at the coverage by the major media of Barack Obama it reminds one of the Three Blind Mice. They hear no evil, they see no evil, and the do no evil. It’s time to take off the blinders. Obama threatened, concealed and cheated his way into the White House.
The media does a disservice to the public when they do not tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This failure by the media strikes deep at the heart of democracy since democracy does not work if the public is not fully informed. As Thomas Jefferson said "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Jefferson went on ". . . whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that, whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them right." Full Article>>
Time to take a closer look at Obama
By D. Lindley Young
We are now in the beginning of the 2012 presidential campaign. It is time to take a closer look at Barack Obama and what he said and promised in the 2008 campaign. During that campaign the media gave him a complete pass on legitimate issues that concerned his character, honesty, loyalty, and associations with shady characters and actual terrorists. The question is whether the media is still having tingles up their legs when they hear him speak and falling over each other in a goo-goo ga-ga press that is so blinded with the gravitas of his voice that they refuse to serve the public by informing them of his past. Full Article>>
WikiLeaks: Demystifying “Diplomacy”
By Norman Solomon
Compared to the kind of secret cables that WikiLeaks has just shared with the world, everyday public statements from government officials are exercises in make-believe.
In a democracy, people have a right to know what their government is actually doing. In a pseudo-democracy, a bunch of fairy tales from high places will do the trick. Full Article>>
North Korea Warns Region on 'Brink of War'
Russia-China Deal Aims -- Sort of -- to Ditch Dollars
Russia and China plan to start conducting their mutual trade in rubles and yuan in a bid to remove the globally predominant U.S. dollar from the equation, but the move seemed more symbolic than financially significant.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced the decision Tuesday after meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in St. Petersburg, adding that rubles had begun to exchange on Chinese exchanges this week and that the yuan will start trading in Moscow next month. Full Article >>
The New War Congress: An Obama-Republican War Alliance
By David Swanson
To understand just how bad the 112th Congress, elected on November 2nd and taking office on January 3rd, is likely to be for peace on Earth, one has to understand how incredibly awful the 110th and 111th Congresses have been during the past four years and then measure the ways in which things are likely to become even worse.
Oddly enough, doing so brings some surprising silver linings into view.
The House and Senate have had Democratic majorities for the past four years. In January, the House will be run by Republicans, while the Democratic majority in the Senate will shrink. We still tend to call the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan "Bush's wars." Republicans are often the most outspoken supporters of these wars, while many Democrats label themselves "critics" and "opponents." Full Article>>
Obama’s Trip to India Was Not For Jobs – It Was for One of the Biggest Arms Deals in History
By D. Lindley Young
There have been many questions about Obama’s ten day trip to India, Indonesia, and among other stops, a luncheon in Russia. Obama touts the trip as one to get jobs for the “people” and to open up markets for American companies. It doesn’t seem that the Obama road showed lived up to its billing nor that it was worth $10 million dollars a day which the American taxpayers funded.
A hand full of jobs don’t really matter a whole lot when compared to multi-billion dollar weapons deals. Even sugar coating the trip with Obama’s silver tongue finds a skeptical audience trying to make sense of the real facts. The real meat to the trip to Asian countries was the sale of weapons for Lockheed Martin, Boeing and other major defense and mid-level weapons industry dealers. Full Article>>
Our main industry is weapons.
By David Swanson
Our main industry is weapons. The U.S. is far and away the world's leading exporter of weapons. We fight wars with and against weapons we've produced. Our largest public expense, eating up over half of every tax dollar, is also weapons and wars -- including wars in which we fund both sides, as in Afghanistan where our payoffs are the largest source of income for the Taliban. Full Article>>
The Afghanistan War Reaches a Milestone — and Keeps Going
On Saturday Nov. 27, the United States and its allies will reach a grim milestone:
they will have been in Afghanistan a day longer than the Soviet Union had been when it completed its 1989 withdrawal. What's more, the U.S. announced during last weekend's NATO summit that it intends to spend at least four more years, and possibly longer, in the Hindu Kush. Even then, many Afghans — perhaps even the president installed by the U.S. invasion — appear to doubt that the Americans will succeed where their erstwhile Cold War nemesis failed. Full Article>>The Obama administration announced the sale ... of $6 billion worth of Patriot anti-missile systems, helicopters, mine-sweeping ships and communications equipment to Taiwan in a long-expected move that sparked an angry protest from
China.Uncle Sam in Afghanistan: Good Help Is Hard to Find
By Norman Solomon