Thursday, 31 May 2012
Almost Half Of New Veterans Seek Disability Compensation
Almost Half Of New Veterans Seek Disability Compensation: pAbout 45 percent of the 1.6 million veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are seeking compensation for service-related injuries — more than double the 21 percent of veterans who filed such claims after the first Gulf War, according to an AP investigation. And new veterans are claiming an average of eight or nine [...]/p
Saturday, 26 May 2012
Report: Israel Killed 55 Civilians in Occupied Territories in 2012 -- News from Antiwar.com
Report: Israel Killed 55 Civilians in Occupied Territories in 2012 -- News from Antiwar.com
The annual Amnesty International report on human rights has once again faulted the Israeli government for its regular use of excessive force against Palestinian civilians, and put the overall death toll at 55 civilians, including 11 children. Three other civilians were killed by settlers in the past year.
The report also touches on Israel’s “administrative detention” policy, which keeps over 300 Palestinians in prison indefinitely without any charges or trial. Palestinians in Israeli custody are also subject to regular torture.
It goes on to criticize Israeli restrictions on Palestinian civilian freedom of movement, noting that in the West Bank the military often keeps farmers away from their own land. Israel’s blockade and harsh restrictions on imports and exports has also exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The report also slammed the Palestinian Authority for violations of human rights, noting that both Fatah and Hamas have regularly attacked civilian supporters of the rival faction.
Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz
Centrifuge Glitch Fuels Latest Iran Scare Stories - May 25th, 2012
Iraq MPs Push Return to Saddam-Era Conscription Laws - May 25th, 2012
US Negotiator on Iran to 'Reaffirm Our Unshakeable Commitment to Israel' - May 25th, 2012
UN: Syria Bombings Likely by 'Established Terrorist Groups' - May 25th, 2012
Military to Avoid Embarrassing Pictures by Banning Photography - May 25th, 2012
| Print This | Share This | Send a letter to the editor | Letters | Antiwar Forum
The annual Amnesty International report on human rights has once again faulted the Israeli government for its regular use of excessive force against Palestinian civilians, and put the overall death toll at 55 civilians, including 11 children. Three other civilians were killed by settlers in the past year.
The report also touches on Israel’s “administrative detention” policy, which keeps over 300 Palestinians in prison indefinitely without any charges or trial. Palestinians in Israeli custody are also subject to regular torture.
It goes on to criticize Israeli restrictions on Palestinian civilian freedom of movement, noting that in the West Bank the military often keeps farmers away from their own land. Israel’s blockade and harsh restrictions on imports and exports has also exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The report also slammed the Palestinian Authority for violations of human rights, noting that both Fatah and Hamas have regularly attacked civilian supporters of the rival faction.
Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz
Centrifuge Glitch Fuels Latest Iran Scare Stories - May 25th, 2012
Iraq MPs Push Return to Saddam-Era Conscription Laws - May 25th, 2012
US Negotiator on Iran to 'Reaffirm Our Unshakeable Commitment to Israel' - May 25th, 2012
UN: Syria Bombings Likely by 'Established Terrorist Groups' - May 25th, 2012
Military to Avoid Embarrassing Pictures by Banning Photography - May 25th, 2012
| Print This | Share This | Send a letter to the editor | Letters | Antiwar Forum
Friday, 25 May 2012
Saudi signs $3 bn deal with Britain
Saudi signs $3 bn deal with Britain
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has signed a $3 billion deal with Britain to buy trainer jets for the Gulf kingdom's air force, SPA state news agency said on Wednesday.
The agreement includes the provision of simulators, ground and training equipment and spare parts, SPA reported, quoting a Saudi defence ministry official.
The official said the new jets would help qualify Saudi pilots "to use fourth-generation jet fighters in full professionalism and efficiency."
British arms manufacturer BAE Systems said that following the agreement between the two countries, it had been awarded a contract equivalent to 1.6 billion pounds ($2.54 billion) "to support the future aircrew training requirements of the Royal Saudi Air Force."
"The contract includes the supply of 22 new Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer aircraft, 55 Pilatus PC-21 aircraft and other aircrew training equipment, as well as an initial support package including the provision of spares, technical publications and post design support," it said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.
Saudi Defence Minister Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz in April visited Britain, a major supplier of weapons to the oil-rich kingdom.
Riyadh in 2006 ordered 72 Eurofighter Typhoons in a deal worth $32.9 billion, including armaments and long-term servicing. The multi-role fighter jet is built by a European consortium in which BAE Systems has a 33-percent share.
Saudi Arabia spends more than 10 percent of its gross domestic product on defence. (AFP)
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has signed a $3 billion deal with Britain to buy trainer jets for the Gulf kingdom's air force, SPA state news agency said on Wednesday.
The agreement includes the provision of simulators, ground and training equipment and spare parts, SPA reported, quoting a Saudi defence ministry official.
The official said the new jets would help qualify Saudi pilots "to use fourth-generation jet fighters in full professionalism and efficiency."
British arms manufacturer BAE Systems said that following the agreement between the two countries, it had been awarded a contract equivalent to 1.6 billion pounds ($2.54 billion) "to support the future aircrew training requirements of the Royal Saudi Air Force."
"The contract includes the supply of 22 new Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer aircraft, 55 Pilatus PC-21 aircraft and other aircrew training equipment, as well as an initial support package including the provision of spares, technical publications and post design support," it said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.
Saudi Defence Minister Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz in April visited Britain, a major supplier of weapons to the oil-rich kingdom.
Riyadh in 2006 ordered 72 Eurofighter Typhoons in a deal worth $32.9 billion, including armaments and long-term servicing. The multi-role fighter jet is built by a European consortium in which BAE Systems has a 33-percent share.
Saudi Arabia spends more than 10 percent of its gross domestic product on defence. (AFP)
Thursday, 24 May 2012
No Country for Young Men as Old Men Play for Time: The End in Afghanistan is Totally Predictable : Information Clearing House
No Country for Young Men as Old Men Play for Time: The End in Afghanistan is Totally Predictable : Information Clearing House
No Country for Young Men as Old Men Play for Time: The End in Afghanistan is Totally Predictable
By Dave Llindorff
May 23, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- John Kerry, back before he was a pompous windsurfing Senate apologist for American empire, back when he wore his hair long and was part of a movement of returned US military veterans speaking out against the continuation of the Vietnam War, famously asked the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing, “How do you ask a man to be the last one to die for a mistake?”
No Country for Young Men as Old Men Play for Time: The End in Afghanistan is Totally Predictable
By Dave Llindorff
May 23, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- John Kerry, back before he was a pompous windsurfing Senate apologist for American empire, back when he wore his hair long and was part of a movement of returned US military veterans speaking out against the continuation of the Vietnam War, famously asked the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing, “How do you ask a man to be the last one to die for a mistake?”
Osama bin Laden's Goal to bankrupt America is Working : Information Clearing House
Osama bin Laden's Goal to bankrupt America is Working : Information Clearing House
Osama bin Laden's Goal to Bankrupt America is Working
By Albert Foster
May 22, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- Michael Scheuer who was the head of the CIA get bin Laden team under Bill Clinton said bin Laden’s goal was to bankrupt America and thus destroy its influence in the world. With the help of Washington politicians he is well on the way to having met his goal.
The national debt was $5.8 trillion on 9/10/2001. Today it is $15.7+ trillion and rapidly rising…almost $10 trillion in just 10 1/2 years. Not a bad start toward bankruptcy if you ask me.
The escalation of our debt was totally irresponsible, is unsustainable, and will lead to the downfall of the United States if we do not get it under control very soon. It was not bin Laden who ran up this debt. He just accelerated the process.
Americans should be really agitated about this, but they are either ignorant or apathetic.
There are 83 million families in the United States and each family’s share of the total U.S. debt is about $700 thousand. The administration’s answer to this problem is smoke and mirrors. They want you to believe the upper 1 percent will pay it. Don’t be fooled.
Officially there are 113.5 million taxpayers in a workforce of 141.6 million. One percent of taxpayers would be 1.14 million, or they would each need to pay $51 million to eliminate the total debt. All we need to do is wipe out most of the upper 1 percent and their assets and only God knows how many jobs will also be wiped out.
Lord Kelvin, famous physicist and mathematician, said, “I often say . . . that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be.”
Lord Kelvin was right. Without reliable numbers we are all fooled by silver tongued devils. My hope is that looking at just a few numbers will help you understand why Osama bin Laden may have won even if we did kill him. In his view, he is now in paradise while we are headed for hell.
Dearborn resident Albert Foster holds masters’ degrees in automotive engineering and business administration.
Osama bin Laden's Goal to Bankrupt America is Working
By Albert Foster
May 22, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- Michael Scheuer who was the head of the CIA get bin Laden team under Bill Clinton said bin Laden’s goal was to bankrupt America and thus destroy its influence in the world. With the help of Washington politicians he is well on the way to having met his goal.
The national debt was $5.8 trillion on 9/10/2001. Today it is $15.7+ trillion and rapidly rising…almost $10 trillion in just 10 1/2 years. Not a bad start toward bankruptcy if you ask me.
The escalation of our debt was totally irresponsible, is unsustainable, and will lead to the downfall of the United States if we do not get it under control very soon. It was not bin Laden who ran up this debt. He just accelerated the process.
Americans should be really agitated about this, but they are either ignorant or apathetic.
There are 83 million families in the United States and each family’s share of the total U.S. debt is about $700 thousand. The administration’s answer to this problem is smoke and mirrors. They want you to believe the upper 1 percent will pay it. Don’t be fooled.
Officially there are 113.5 million taxpayers in a workforce of 141.6 million. One percent of taxpayers would be 1.14 million, or they would each need to pay $51 million to eliminate the total debt. All we need to do is wipe out most of the upper 1 percent and their assets and only God knows how many jobs will also be wiped out.
Lord Kelvin, famous physicist and mathematician, said, “I often say . . . that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be.”
Lord Kelvin was right. Without reliable numbers we are all fooled by silver tongued devils. My hope is that looking at just a few numbers will help you understand why Osama bin Laden may have won even if we did kill him. In his view, he is now in paradise while we are headed for hell.
Dearborn resident Albert Foster holds masters’ degrees in automotive engineering and business administration.
War Pay : The Nearly $1 Trillion National Security Budget : Information Clearing House
War Pay : The Nearly $1 Trillion National Security Budget : Information Clearing House
War Pay
The Nearly $1 Trillion National Security Budget
By Chris Hellman and Mattea Kramer
May 22, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- Recent months have seen a flurry of headlines about cuts (often called “threats”) to the U.S. defense budget. Last week, lawmakers in the House of Representatives even passed a bill that was meant to spare national security spending from future cuts by reducing school-lunch funding and other social programs.
War Pay
The Nearly $1 Trillion National Security Budget
By Chris Hellman and Mattea Kramer
May 22, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- Recent months have seen a flurry of headlines about cuts (often called “threats”) to the U.S. defense budget. Last week, lawmakers in the House of Representatives even passed a bill that was meant to spare national security spending from future cuts by reducing school-lunch funding and other social programs.
Tuesday, 22 May 2012
"No NATO, No War": U.S. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Return War Medals at NATO Summit
"No NATO, No War": U.S. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Return War Medals at NATO Summit
We broadcast from Chicago, site of the largest NATO summit in the organization’s six-decade history. On Sunday, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as members of Afghans for Peace, led a peace march of thousands of people. Iraq Veterans Against the War held a ceremony where nearly 50 veterans discarded their war medals by hurling them down the street in the direction of the NATO summit. We hear the soldiers’ voices as they return their medals one by one from the stage. "I’m here to return my Global War on Terror Service Medal in solidarity with the people of Iraq and the people of Afghanistan," said Jason Hurd, a former combat medic who spent 10 years in the U.S. Army. "I am deeply sorry for the destruction that we have caused in those countries and around the globe." [includes rush transcript]
We broadcast from Chicago, site of the largest NATO summit in the organization’s six-decade history. On Sunday, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as members of Afghans for Peace, led a peace march of thousands of people. Iraq Veterans Against the War held a ceremony where nearly 50 veterans discarded their war medals by hurling them down the street in the direction of the NATO summit. We hear the soldiers’ voices as they return their medals one by one from the stage. "I’m here to return my Global War on Terror Service Medal in solidarity with the people of Iraq and the people of Afghanistan," said Jason Hurd, a former combat medic who spent 10 years in the U.S. Army. "I am deeply sorry for the destruction that we have caused in those countries and around the globe." [includes rush transcript]
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Reports: Hunger Strike Ends for Most Palestinians -- News from Antiwar.com
Reports: Hunger Strike Ends for Most Palestinians -- News from Antiwar.com
Reports from Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian officials familiar with the deal say that the vast majority of Palestinian hunger strikers have signed off on an agreement to end the strike, after promising to end solitary confinement and allow family visits for detainees.
Reports from Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian officials familiar with the deal say that the vast majority of Palestinian hunger strikers have signed off on an agreement to end the strike, after promising to end solitary confinement and allow family visits for detainees.
State Dept. Poised to Remove Iranian Terror Group From Terror List -- News from Antiwar.com
State Dept. Poised to Remove Iranian Terror Group From Terror List -- News from Antiwar.com
One of the founding members of the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, the Iran-based cult the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MeK) is almost certain to be delisted in the next 60 days, in a move that is likely to dramatically increase tensions between the US and Iran.
One of the founding members of the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, the Iran-based cult the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MeK) is almost certain to be delisted in the next 60 days, in a move that is likely to dramatically increase tensions between the US and Iran.
Five Facts That Put America to Shame: Information Clearing House
Five Facts That Put America to Shame: Information Clearing House
Five Facts That Put America to Shame
By Paul Buchheit
May 14, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" These words, from poet Emma Lazarus, were inscribed on the Statue of Liberty over 100 years ago. Today the golden door has a lock on it, paid for with record profits from the health care, education, and financial industries.
Five Facts That Put America to Shame
By Paul Buchheit
May 14, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" These words, from poet Emma Lazarus, were inscribed on the Statue of Liberty over 100 years ago. Today the golden door has a lock on it, paid for with record profits from the health care, education, and financial industries.
Chomsky: The Palestinian Hunger Strike & Occupy Wall Street : Information Clearing House
Chomsky: The Palestinian Hunger Strike & Occupy Wall Street : Information Clearing House
The Palestinian Hunger Strike & Occupy Wall Street
By Noam Chomsky
Occupy Wall Street "Has Created Something That Didn’t Really Exist" in U.S. — Solidarity
The Palestinian Hunger Strike & Occupy Wall Street
By Noam Chomsky
Occupy Wall Street "Has Created Something That Didn’t Really Exist" in U.S. — Solidarity
Long Live 'Our' Gulf Bastards : Information Clearing House
Long Live 'Our' Gulf Bastards : Information Clearing House
Long Live 'Our' Gulf Bastards
By Pepe Escobar
May 14, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- Life is a golden gift from Allah if you're a certified member of the Gulf Counter-Revolution Club (GCC), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council; Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates can torture, kill, repress and demonize their own subjects - in full confidence the "master" will let you get away with it.
Just as the Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty in power in Bahrain is vowing, publicly, to keep arresting, tear-gassing, raiding their homes, confiscating their jobs and forcing pro-democracy protesters to live in non-stop fear, Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa is being hosted in Washington by the Barack Obama administration.
Prince Salman - who Bahraini propaganda sells as a "moderate" - showed up at the US State Department side-by-side with Secretary of State Hillary "We came, we saw, he died" Clinton. Those who "die" are evil dictators of the Muammar Gaddafi variety; "our" bastards get to party in DC after being extended a red carpet welcome.
Is there any Arab Spring-related repression and killing going in Bahrain? According to Clinton, of course not; these are only "internal issues" - in her own words.
What this means in practice is that Clinton subscribes to the official narrative that the sectarianization of everything happening in Bahrain is to be blamed on the protesters - and not the al-Khalifas, who for a year now have been destroying Shi'ite mosques and investing on all-out demonization of all things Shi'ite (blame it on "evil" Iran).
The al-Khalifas have been way wilier than President Bashar al-Assad in Syria; they have killed only an acceptable number of people. But why is Bahrain substantially "different" from Syria? Because "it hosts the US Navy's 5th Fleet, helping the US military project its might in the Gulf and contain Iran"; and that's not a neo-conservative talking, but Washington director of Human Rights Watch, Tom Malinowski.
A bunch of cowards
Here is Libya conqueror Clinton:
Bahrain is a valued ally of the United States. We partner on many important issues of mutual concern to each of our nations and to the regional and global concerns as well. I'm looking forward to a chance to talk over with His Royal Highness a number of the issues both internally and externally that Bahrain is dealing with and have some better understanding of the ongoing efforts that the government of Bahrain is undertaking. So again, His Royal Highness, welcome to the United States.
Here's a Bahraini government spokesman telling it like it is to Reuters only one day before the Clinton-Crown Prince schmooze:
We are looking into the perpetrators and people who use print, broadcast and social media to encourage illegal protest and violence around the country. If applying the law means tougher action, then so be it.
Translation: we will keep going on a rampage because the masters in Washington have our backs covered.
Not a word from the Obama administration on the arrest of top Bahraini human-rights activist Nabeel Rajab, who Amnesty International declared a "prisoner of conscience", as well as calling for his immediate release. Activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, for his part, has been on a hunger strike for three months, protesting his life imprisonment by the al-Khalifa regime.
R2P, "responsibility to protect", that oh so lovely doctrine espoused by the Three Graces - Clinton, US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice and Special Assistant to Obama Samantha Power - does not apply to civilian protesters, the majority of them Shi'ites, in Bahrain. They have been yelling for their basic human rights - of which they don't have much - to be protected for over a year now.
Bahrain's Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman al Khalifa - whose Medieval methods would lead Egyptian Omar "Sheikh al-Torture" Suleiman to blush with envy, not to mention Prince Nayef from the House of Saud - has been in power for 40 years.
And Bahrain's King Hamad has been oh so generous; after all he commissioned a report on the repression. Needless to say, the report, even highly sanitized, hasn't been implemented.
What makes it even more tragic is that these people are cowards. It would take just a single word from Clinton or Obama for the al-Khalifas to immediately stop their concerted repression, using their hardcore Sunni police force recruited from Pakistan, Syria and Yemen; release the thousands of prisoners; and rehire the thousands of workers who were laid off because they are "subversive". Here's why.
There has been a rumor in Britain that Nasser Bin Hamad, the son of Bahrain's King, might be banned from attending the London Summer Olympic Games this summer. There are graphic reasons for it; he personally threatened many athletes, on top of being accused of torture. So what did he do? In haste, he deleted all his threatening tweets. Expect Nasser to be partying in Mayfair in July.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His most recent book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).
He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com
(Copyright 2012 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd.
Long Live 'Our' Gulf Bastards
By Pepe Escobar
May 14, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- Life is a golden gift from Allah if you're a certified member of the Gulf Counter-Revolution Club (GCC), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council; Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates can torture, kill, repress and demonize their own subjects - in full confidence the "master" will let you get away with it.
Just as the Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty in power in Bahrain is vowing, publicly, to keep arresting, tear-gassing, raiding their homes, confiscating their jobs and forcing pro-democracy protesters to live in non-stop fear, Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa is being hosted in Washington by the Barack Obama administration.
Prince Salman - who Bahraini propaganda sells as a "moderate" - showed up at the US State Department side-by-side with Secretary of State Hillary "We came, we saw, he died" Clinton. Those who "die" are evil dictators of the Muammar Gaddafi variety; "our" bastards get to party in DC after being extended a red carpet welcome.
Is there any Arab Spring-related repression and killing going in Bahrain? According to Clinton, of course not; these are only "internal issues" - in her own words.
What this means in practice is that Clinton subscribes to the official narrative that the sectarianization of everything happening in Bahrain is to be blamed on the protesters - and not the al-Khalifas, who for a year now have been destroying Shi'ite mosques and investing on all-out demonization of all things Shi'ite (blame it on "evil" Iran).
The al-Khalifas have been way wilier than President Bashar al-Assad in Syria; they have killed only an acceptable number of people. But why is Bahrain substantially "different" from Syria? Because "it hosts the US Navy's 5th Fleet, helping the US military project its might in the Gulf and contain Iran"; and that's not a neo-conservative talking, but Washington director of Human Rights Watch, Tom Malinowski.
A bunch of cowards
Here is Libya conqueror Clinton:
Bahrain is a valued ally of the United States. We partner on many important issues of mutual concern to each of our nations and to the regional and global concerns as well. I'm looking forward to a chance to talk over with His Royal Highness a number of the issues both internally and externally that Bahrain is dealing with and have some better understanding of the ongoing efforts that the government of Bahrain is undertaking. So again, His Royal Highness, welcome to the United States.
Here's a Bahraini government spokesman telling it like it is to Reuters only one day before the Clinton-Crown Prince schmooze:
We are looking into the perpetrators and people who use print, broadcast and social media to encourage illegal protest and violence around the country. If applying the law means tougher action, then so be it.
Translation: we will keep going on a rampage because the masters in Washington have our backs covered.
Not a word from the Obama administration on the arrest of top Bahraini human-rights activist Nabeel Rajab, who Amnesty International declared a "prisoner of conscience", as well as calling for his immediate release. Activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, for his part, has been on a hunger strike for three months, protesting his life imprisonment by the al-Khalifa regime.
R2P, "responsibility to protect", that oh so lovely doctrine espoused by the Three Graces - Clinton, US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice and Special Assistant to Obama Samantha Power - does not apply to civilian protesters, the majority of them Shi'ites, in Bahrain. They have been yelling for their basic human rights - of which they don't have much - to be protected for over a year now.
Bahrain's Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman al Khalifa - whose Medieval methods would lead Egyptian Omar "Sheikh al-Torture" Suleiman to blush with envy, not to mention Prince Nayef from the House of Saud - has been in power for 40 years.
And Bahrain's King Hamad has been oh so generous; after all he commissioned a report on the repression. Needless to say, the report, even highly sanitized, hasn't been implemented.
What makes it even more tragic is that these people are cowards. It would take just a single word from Clinton or Obama for the al-Khalifas to immediately stop their concerted repression, using their hardcore Sunni police force recruited from Pakistan, Syria and Yemen; release the thousands of prisoners; and rehire the thousands of workers who were laid off because they are "subversive". Here's why.
There has been a rumor in Britain that Nasser Bin Hamad, the son of Bahrain's King, might be banned from attending the London Summer Olympic Games this summer. There are graphic reasons for it; he personally threatened many athletes, on top of being accused of torture. So what did he do? In haste, he deleted all his threatening tweets. Expect Nasser to be partying in Mayfair in July.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His most recent book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).
He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com
(Copyright 2012 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd.
Sunday, 13 May 2012
Why the U.S. Can’t Compete Educationally
Why the U.S. Can’t Compete Educationally
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
The United States cannot follow the Finnish model to emerge from second class world educational status, because the Finnish system is based on social equality and esteem for the teaching profession. Here, “teachers are relentless hounded and degraded, made the scapegoats of society’s inequalities by sharing low scores with their students, whose families and communities are cut off from America’s wealth.” To compete, America must be radically transformed.
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
The United States cannot follow the Finnish model to emerge from second class world educational status, because the Finnish system is based on social equality and esteem for the teaching profession. Here, “teachers are relentless hounded and degraded, made the scapegoats of society’s inequalities by sharing low scores with their students, whose families and communities are cut off from America’s wealth.” To compete, America must be radically transformed.
Why Isn't Closing 40 Philadelphia Public Schools National News? Where Is the Black Political Class?
Why Isn't Closing 40 Philadelphia Public Schools National News? Where Is the Black Political Class?
If some racist made an inappropriate remark about the First Lady or her children our national "civil rights leaders" Obama fans all of them, would be all over that. But standing up for ordinary black children is something our leaders just don't do much any more. When was the last time you heard Sharpton, Jealous or any of that tribe inveigh against school closings and the creeping privatization of our schools?
Why Isn't Closing 40 Philadelphia Public Schools National News? Where Is the Black Political Class?
If some racist made an inappropriate remark about the First Lady or her children our national "civil rights leaders" Obama fans all of them, would be all over that. But standing up for ordinary black children is something our leaders just don't do much any more. When was the last time you heard Sharpton, Jealous or any of that tribe inveigh against school closings and the creeping privatization of our schools?
Why Isn't Closing 40 Philadelphia Public Schools National News? Where Is the Black Political Class?
Nasrallah says Syria risks becoming like Iraq - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
Nasrallah says Syria risks becoming like Iraq - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, has accused the US, Israel and some Arab states of stoking "terrorism" in Syria during a speech broadcast to thousands of his supporters in southern Beirut.
"Who wants the destruction of Syria? America and Israel and some Arab countries," said Nasrallah, whose Shia movement is close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.
"They want to destroy Syria because it is the main ally of the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine."
Condemning deadly twin blasts that killed dozens and injured hundreds of people in Damascus on Thursday, Nasrallah criticised the Syrian opposition over its accusation that Assad’s forces were behind the attacks.
The explosions, the Hezbollah chief added, were proof that Syria risks descending into an abyss similar to Iraq.
"The Syrian people are at a crossroads," Nasrallah said, adding that one path leads to "reform", and the other to "destruction".
Nasrallah spoke during an event in Beirut’s southern suburbs celebrating the reconstruction of the district, much of which was destroyed by aerial bombing in the 2006 war with Israel, Hezbollah TV channel Al-Manar said.
At least 1,200 Lebanese died during the 2006 war, most of them civilians, while around 160 Israelis died, the majority of them soldiers.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah has weapons that can accurately hit targets throughout Israel and that if a new war broke out, the group would destroy several targets in Israel for every building destroyed in Beirut.
The Hezbollah leader said that in 2006 his movement had been able to strike Tel Aviv, but wished to protect the city.
He added that Hezbollah is "capable of striking very specific targets not only in Tel Aviv but everywhere in occupied Palestine".
Nasrallah also voiced support for electoral laws based on proportional representation for upcoming polls in Lebanon in 2013, which he said needed to be held on time.
The formation of Lebanon's government in recent years has come only after political wrangling between the mostly Sunni Future Movement led by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the so-called March 8 coalition led by Hezbollah and other groups, including Christians.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, has accused the US, Israel and some Arab states of stoking "terrorism" in Syria during a speech broadcast to thousands of his supporters in southern Beirut.
"Who wants the destruction of Syria? America and Israel and some Arab countries," said Nasrallah, whose Shia movement is close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.
"They want to destroy Syria because it is the main ally of the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine."
Condemning deadly twin blasts that killed dozens and injured hundreds of people in Damascus on Thursday, Nasrallah criticised the Syrian opposition over its accusation that Assad’s forces were behind the attacks.
The explosions, the Hezbollah chief added, were proof that Syria risks descending into an abyss similar to Iraq.
"The Syrian people are at a crossroads," Nasrallah said, adding that one path leads to "reform", and the other to "destruction".
Nasrallah spoke during an event in Beirut’s southern suburbs celebrating the reconstruction of the district, much of which was destroyed by aerial bombing in the 2006 war with Israel, Hezbollah TV channel Al-Manar said.
At least 1,200 Lebanese died during the 2006 war, most of them civilians, while around 160 Israelis died, the majority of them soldiers.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah has weapons that can accurately hit targets throughout Israel and that if a new war broke out, the group would destroy several targets in Israel for every building destroyed in Beirut.
The Hezbollah leader said that in 2006 his movement had been able to strike Tel Aviv, but wished to protect the city.
He added that Hezbollah is "capable of striking very specific targets not only in Tel Aviv but everywhere in occupied Palestine".
Nasrallah also voiced support for electoral laws based on proportional representation for upcoming polls in Lebanon in 2013, which he said needed to be held on time.
The formation of Lebanon's government in recent years has come only after political wrangling between the mostly Sunni Future Movement led by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the so-called March 8 coalition led by Hezbollah and other groups, including Christians.
Noam Chomsky: Cuba, The Drug War, And The Isolation Of The U.S.
Noam Chomsky: Cuba, The Drug War, And The Isolation Of The U.S.
Cuba, The Drug War, And The Isolation Of The U.S.
By Noam Chomsky
May 11, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- Though sidelined by the Secret Service scandal, last month’s Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, was an event of considerable significance. There are three major reasons: Cuba, the drug war, and the isolation of the United States.
A headline in the Jamaica Observer read, “Summit shows how much Yanqui influence had waned.” The story reports that “the big items on the agenda were the lucrative and destructive drug trade and how the countries of the entire region could meet while excluding one country – Cuba.”
The meetings ended with no agreement because of U.S. opposition on those items – a drug-decriminalization policy and the Cuba ban. Continued U.S. obstructionism may well lead to the displacement of the Organization of American States by the newly-formed Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, from which the United States and Canada are excluded.
Cuba, The Drug War, And The Isolation Of The U.S.
By Noam Chomsky
May 11, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- Though sidelined by the Secret Service scandal, last month’s Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, was an event of considerable significance. There are three major reasons: Cuba, the drug war, and the isolation of the United States.
A headline in the Jamaica Observer read, “Summit shows how much Yanqui influence had waned.” The story reports that “the big items on the agenda were the lucrative and destructive drug trade and how the countries of the entire region could meet while excluding one country – Cuba.”
The meetings ended with no agreement because of U.S. opposition on those items – a drug-decriminalization policy and the Cuba ban. Continued U.S. obstructionism may well lead to the displacement of the Organization of American States by the newly-formed Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, from which the United States and Canada are excluded.
: Information Clearing House
: Information Clearing House
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The US Military's 'Anti-Islam Classes'
How widespread is the use of anti-Islamic material in the US military?
Video
Inside Story - Al Jazeera
May 13, 2012 -- Al Jazeera has obtained exclusive material of a course taught on a US military base implying that Hamas has influenced the US government at the highest levels.
The course is called "Understanding the Threat to America." And in it are hundreds of slides that claim to link the Muslim Civil Liberties Advocacy Organisation (CAIR) and other American Muslim groups to the Palestinian group Hamas.
It was taught to senior military officers at a base in the state of Virginia.
The US military is conducting a review of all material taught to its officers after the website Wired.com exposed another course teaching anti-Islam material.
One of the slides presented by Army Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Dooley says the model he is presenting presumes that the Geneva Conventions are "no longer relevant," when fighting Muslims.
It goes on to say that historical precendents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are applicable to "Mecca and Medina's destruction."
Dooley's 31-page presentation entitled "So What Can We Do?" A Counter - Jihad Op Design Model, comes to some startling conclusions: "Given the factual basis of what "Islamists" say they seek to impose on the world, the United States has come to accept that radical "true Islam" is both a political and military enemy to free people throughout the world.... It is therefore time for the United States to make our true intentions clear. This barbaric ideology will no longer be tolerated. Islam must change or we will facilitate its self destruction."
Dooley has since been suspended but still holds his position at the college where this material was taught.
Both the courses obtained by Al Jazeera and Wired.com were voluntary courses and it is not clear if similar material has been taught in other military colleges.
So how widespread is the use of anti-Islamic material in the US military? And is the government doing enough to put an end to its use?
To discuss this, Inside Story Americas, with presenter Anand Naidoo, is joined by Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR's national communications director; Morris Davis, a retired Air Force Colonel who served as chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay between 2005 and 2007; and Al Jazeera's Josh Rushing.
"In all of our learning institutions we want students to get a wide array of views and perspectives - we want the instruction to challenge them and challenge their thinking; that's all healthy. But it needs to be blanced and certainly needs to be in keeping with our core values as an institution. The material that was presented to us as a matter of concern by this young officer student certainly is not in keeping with our values - and more importantly, not even in keeping with the strategy as we see it in the 'War on Terror'."
John Kirby, US Department of Defense spokesman
Source:
Al Jazeera
Home
Sign up for our FREE Daily Email Newsletter
The US Military's 'Anti-Islam Classes'
How widespread is the use of anti-Islamic material in the US military?
Video
Inside Story - Al Jazeera
May 13, 2012 -- Al Jazeera has obtained exclusive material of a course taught on a US military base implying that Hamas has influenced the US government at the highest levels.
The course is called "Understanding the Threat to America." And in it are hundreds of slides that claim to link the Muslim Civil Liberties Advocacy Organisation (CAIR) and other American Muslim groups to the Palestinian group Hamas.
It was taught to senior military officers at a base in the state of Virginia.
The US military is conducting a review of all material taught to its officers after the website Wired.com exposed another course teaching anti-Islam material.
One of the slides presented by Army Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Dooley says the model he is presenting presumes that the Geneva Conventions are "no longer relevant," when fighting Muslims.
It goes on to say that historical precendents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are applicable to "Mecca and Medina's destruction."
Dooley's 31-page presentation entitled "So What Can We Do?" A Counter - Jihad Op Design Model, comes to some startling conclusions: "Given the factual basis of what "Islamists" say they seek to impose on the world, the United States has come to accept that radical "true Islam" is both a political and military enemy to free people throughout the world.... It is therefore time for the United States to make our true intentions clear. This barbaric ideology will no longer be tolerated. Islam must change or we will facilitate its self destruction."
Dooley has since been suspended but still holds his position at the college where this material was taught.
Both the courses obtained by Al Jazeera and Wired.com were voluntary courses and it is not clear if similar material has been taught in other military colleges.
So how widespread is the use of anti-Islamic material in the US military? And is the government doing enough to put an end to its use?
To discuss this, Inside Story Americas, with presenter Anand Naidoo, is joined by Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR's national communications director; Morris Davis, a retired Air Force Colonel who served as chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay between 2005 and 2007; and Al Jazeera's Josh Rushing.
"In all of our learning institutions we want students to get a wide array of views and perspectives - we want the instruction to challenge them and challenge their thinking; that's all healthy. But it needs to be blanced and certainly needs to be in keeping with our core values as an institution. The material that was presented to us as a matter of concern by this young officer student certainly is not in keeping with our values - and more importantly, not even in keeping with the strategy as we see it in the 'War on Terror'."
John Kirby, US Department of Defense spokesman
Source:
Al Jazeera
Saudi Arabia beheads woman for 'sorcery' - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
Saudi Arabia beheads woman for 'sorcery' - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
A Saudi woman has been beheaded after being convicted of practising sorcery, which is banned in the conservative Gulf kingdom, the country's interior ministry said.
Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser was executed on Monday in the northern province of Jawf for "practising witchcraft and sorcery", the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA, Saudi Arabia's state news agency.
The ministry gave no further details of the charges for which the woman was convicted.
London-based newspaper al-Hayat quoted a member of the Saudi religious police as saying Nasser was in her 60s. The official claimed she had tricked people into giving her money, claiming that she could cure their illnesses.
According to the report, she apparently charged up to $800 a session.
Amnesty International said the beheading brought the number of executions in the kingdom to 73 this year. Another woman was beheaded in October for killing her husband by setting his house on fire.
There are no available statistics on how many women have been executed in Saudi Arabia.
'Truly appalling'
Amnesty condemned Monday's execution as "truly appalling", and called on Saudi Arabia to urgently halt the practice.
"The charges of 'witchcraft and sorcery' are not defined as crimes in Saudi Arabia", Philip Luther, Amnesty's interim director of the Middle East and North Africa, said.
"To use them to subject someone to the cruel and extreme penalty of execution is truly appalling," he added in a statement, which stressed the "urgent need" to stop executions.
A Saudi woman has been beheaded after being convicted of practising sorcery, which is banned in the conservative Gulf kingdom, the country's interior ministry said.
Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser was executed on Monday in the northern province of Jawf for "practising witchcraft and sorcery", the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA, Saudi Arabia's state news agency.
The ministry gave no further details of the charges for which the woman was convicted.
London-based newspaper al-Hayat quoted a member of the Saudi religious police as saying Nasser was in her 60s. The official claimed she had tricked people into giving her money, claiming that she could cure their illnesses.
According to the report, she apparently charged up to $800 a session.
Amnesty International said the beheading brought the number of executions in the kingdom to 73 this year. Another woman was beheaded in October for killing her husband by setting his house on fire.
There are no available statistics on how many women have been executed in Saudi Arabia.
'Truly appalling'
Amnesty condemned Monday's execution as "truly appalling", and called on Saudi Arabia to urgently halt the practice.
"The charges of 'witchcraft and sorcery' are not defined as crimes in Saudi Arabia", Philip Luther, Amnesty's interim director of the Middle East and North Africa, said.
"To use them to subject someone to the cruel and extreme penalty of execution is truly appalling," he added in a statement, which stressed the "urgent need" to stop executions.
Germany grappling with violence at demonstrations - The National
Germany grappling with violence at demonstrations - The National
Berlin // The German government is considering banning some radical Muslim groups and expelling violent demonstrators from the country after several police were attacked and injured by Islamists protesting against displays of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed by a far-right organisation.
Berlin // The German government is considering banning some radical Muslim groups and expelling violent demonstrators from the country after several police were attacked and injured by Islamists protesting against displays of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed by a far-right organisation.
Saturday, 12 May 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/08/conservative-thinktanks-obama-energy-plans?newsfeed=true
A network of ultra-conservative groups is ramping up an offensive on multiple fronts to turn the American public against wind farms and Barack Obama's energy agenda. A number of rightwing organisations, including Americans for Prosperity, which is funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, are attacking Obama for his support for solar and wind power. The American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), which also has financial links to the Kochs, has drafted bills to overturn state laws promoting wind energy. Now a confidential strategy memo seen by the Guardian advises using "subversion" to build a national movement of wind farm protesters.
Unfathomable Stupidity: TSA 'Terror Baby' Crackdown : : Information Clearing House
Unfathomable Stupidity: TSA 'Terror Baby' Crackdown : : Information Clearing House
Unfathomable Stupidity: TSA 'Terror Baby' Crackdown
Video By RT
Our tool time award goes to the TSA for actually detaining an eighteen month old for questioning. And given this latest incident, it's not surprising that Congress members are proposing to scale back the TSA. Senator Rand Paul's office even announced last week that it's drafting legislation to scrap the agency entirely.
Unfathomable Stupidity: TSA 'Terror Baby' Crackdown
Video By RT
Our tool time award goes to the TSA for actually detaining an eighteen month old for questioning. And given this latest incident, it's not surprising that Congress members are proposing to scale back the TSA. Senator Rand Paul's office even announced last week that it's drafting legislation to scrap the agency entirely.
Guns Or Butter? House Votes to Cut Social Programs : Information Clearing House
Guns Or Butter? House Votes to Cut Social Programs : Information Clearing House
May 11, 2012 "AP" -- Turning their budget knife to domestic programs to protect the Pentagon, House Republicans on Thursday approved legislation cutting food stamps, benefits for federal workers and social services programs like day care for children and Meals on Wheels for the elderly.
President Barack Obama's Wall St. reform law would be rewritten under the legislation, passed on a 218-199 vote, while his controversial overhaul of the U.S. health care system would also be cut. The legislation would deny illegal immigrants child tax credits they can currently claim, while new curbs on medical malpractice lawsuits are credited with driving down Medicare and Medicaid costs.
The bill, passed after a passionate, sometimes hyperbolic debate, would spare the military from a $55 billion, 10 percent automatic budget cut next year that's punishment for the failure of last year's deficit-reduction "supercommittee" to strike a deal. It also would protect domestic agencies from an 8 percent cut to their day-to-day operating budgets next year, but would leave in place a 2 percent cut to Medicare providers.
May 11, 2012 "AP" -- Turning their budget knife to domestic programs to protect the Pentagon, House Republicans on Thursday approved legislation cutting food stamps, benefits for federal workers and social services programs like day care for children and Meals on Wheels for the elderly.
President Barack Obama's Wall St. reform law would be rewritten under the legislation, passed on a 218-199 vote, while his controversial overhaul of the U.S. health care system would also be cut. The legislation would deny illegal immigrants child tax credits they can currently claim, while new curbs on medical malpractice lawsuits are credited with driving down Medicare and Medicaid costs.
The bill, passed after a passionate, sometimes hyperbolic debate, would spare the military from a $55 billion, 10 percent automatic budget cut next year that's punishment for the failure of last year's deficit-reduction "supercommittee" to strike a deal. It also would protect domestic agencies from an 8 percent cut to their day-to-day operating budgets next year, but would leave in place a 2 percent cut to Medicare providers.
Bush Found Guilty Of War Crimes : Information Clearing House
Bush Found Guilty Of War Crimes : Information Clearing House
Bush Found Guilty Of War Crimes
By Yvonne Ridley
May 11, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- Kuala Lumpur -- IT’S OFFICIAL - George W Bush is a war criminal.
In what is the first ever conviction of its kind anywhere in the world, the former US President and seven key members of his administration were today (Friday) found guilty of war crimes.
Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their legal advisers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo were tried in absentia in Malaysia.
The trial held in Kuala Lumpur heard harrowing witness accounts from victims of torture who suffered at the hands of US soldiers and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They included testimony from British man Moazzam Begg, an ex-Guantanamo detainee and Iraqi woman Jameelah Abbas Hameedi who was tortured in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
At the end of the week-long hearing, the five-panel tribunal unanimously delivered guilty verdicts against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their key legal advisors who were all convicted as war criminals for torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.
Full transcripts of the charges, witness statements and other relevant material will now be sent to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as the United Nations and the Security Council.
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission is also asking that the names of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Yoo, Bybee, Addington and Haynes be entered and included in the Commission’s Register of War Criminals for public record.
The tribunal is the initiative of Malaysia's retired Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who staunchly opposed the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
He sat through the entire hearing as it took personal statements and testimonies of three witnesses namely Abbas Abid, Moazzam Begg and Jameelah Hameedi. The tribunal also heard two other Statutory Declarations of Iraqi citizen Ali Shalal and Rahul Ahmed, another British citizen.
After the guilty verdict reached by five senior judges was delivered, Mahathir Mohamad said: “Powerful countries are getting away with murder.”
War crimes expert and lawyer Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law in America, was part of the prosecution team.
After the case he said: “This is the first conviction of these people anywhere in the world.”
While the hearing is regarded by some as being purely symbolic, human rights activist Boyle said he was hopeful that Bush and Co could soon find themselves facing similar trials elsewhere in the world.
“We tried three times to get Bush in Canada but were thwarted by the Canadian Government, then we scared Bush out of going to Switzerland. The Spanish attempt failed because of the government there and the same happened in Germany.”
Boyle then referenced the Nuremberg Charter which was used as the format for the tribunal when asked about the credibility of the initiative in Malaysia. He quoted: “Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit war crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any person in execution of such a plan.”
The US is subject to customary international law and to the Principles of the Nuremberg Charter said Boyle who also believes the week-long trial was “almost certainly” being monitored closely by both Pentagon and White House officials.
Professor Gurdial Singh Nijar, who headed the prosecution said: “The tribunal was very careful to adhere scrupulously to the regulations drawn up by the Nuremberg courts and the International Criminal Courts”.
He added that he was optimistic the tribunal would be followed up elsewhere in the world where “countries have a duty to try war criminals” and he cited the case of the former Chilean dictator Augustine Pinochet who was arrested in Britain to be extradited to Spain on charges of war crimes.
“Pinochet was only eight years out of his presidency when that happened.”
The Pinochet case was the first time that several European judges applied the principle of universal jurisdiction, declaring themselves competent to judge crimes committed by former heads of state, despite local amnesty laws.
Throughout the week the tribunal was packed with legal experts and law students as witnesses gave testimony and then cross examination by the defence led by lawyer Jason Kay Kit Leon.
The court heard how
· Abbas Abid, a 48-year-old engineer from Fallujah in Iraq had his fingernails removed by pliers.
· Ali Shalal was attached with bare electrical wires and electrocuted and hung from a wall.
· Moazzam Begg was beaten, hooded and put in solitary confinement.
· Jameelah was stripped and humiliated, and was used as a human shield whilst being transported by helicopter.
The witnesses also detailed how they have residual injuries till today.
Moazzam Begg, now working as a director for the London-based human rights group Cageprisoners said he was delighted with the verdict, but added: “When people talk about Nuremberg you have to remember those tried were all prosecuted after the war.
“Right now Guantanamo is still open, people are still being held there and are still being tortured there.”
In response to questions about the difference between the Bush and Obama Administrations, he added: “If President Bush was the President of extra-judicial torture then US President Barak Obama is the President of extra judicial killing through drone strikes. Our work has only just begun.”
The prosecution case rested on proving how the decision-makers at the highest level President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld, aided and abetted by the lawyers and the other commanders and CIA officials – all acted in concert. Torture was systematically applied and became an accepted norm.
According to the prosecution, the testimony of all the witnesses exposed a sustained perpetration of brutal, barbaric, cruel and dehumanising course of conduct against them.
These acts of crimes were applied cumulatively to inflict the worst possible pain and suffering, said lawyers.
The president of the tribunal Tan Sri Dato Lamin bin Haji Mohd Yunus Lamin, found that the prosecution had established beyond a “reasonable doubt that the accused persons, former President George Bush and his co-conspirators engaged in a web of instructions, memos, directives, legal advice and action that established a common plan and purpose, joint enterprise and/or conspiracy to commit the crimes of Torture and War Crimes, including and not limited to a common plan and purpose to commit the following crimes in relation to the “War on Terror” and the wars launched by the U.S. and others in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
President Lamin told a packed courtroom: “As a tribunal of conscience, the Tribunal is fully aware that its verdict is merely declaratory in nature. The tribunal has no power of enforcement, no power to impose any custodial sentence on any one or more of the 8 convicted persons. What we can do, under Article 31 of Chapter VI of Part 2 of the Charter is to recommend to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission to submit this finding of conviction by the Tribunal, together with a record of these proceedings, to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as the United Nations and the Security Council.
“The Tribunal also recommends to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission that the names of all the 8 convicted persons be entered and included in the Commission’s Register of War Criminals and be publicised accordingly.
“The Tribunal recommends to the War Crimes Commission to give the widest international publicity to this conviction and grant of reparations, as these are universal crimes for which there is a responsibility upon nations to institute prosecutions if any of these Accused persons may enter their jurisdictions”.
British journalist Yvonne Ridley is also a patron of Cageprisoners
Bush Found Guilty Of War Crimes
By Yvonne Ridley
May 11, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- Kuala Lumpur -- IT’S OFFICIAL - George W Bush is a war criminal.
In what is the first ever conviction of its kind anywhere in the world, the former US President and seven key members of his administration were today (Friday) found guilty of war crimes.
Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their legal advisers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo were tried in absentia in Malaysia.
The trial held in Kuala Lumpur heard harrowing witness accounts from victims of torture who suffered at the hands of US soldiers and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They included testimony from British man Moazzam Begg, an ex-Guantanamo detainee and Iraqi woman Jameelah Abbas Hameedi who was tortured in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
At the end of the week-long hearing, the five-panel tribunal unanimously delivered guilty verdicts against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their key legal advisors who were all convicted as war criminals for torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.
Full transcripts of the charges, witness statements and other relevant material will now be sent to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as the United Nations and the Security Council.
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission is also asking that the names of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Yoo, Bybee, Addington and Haynes be entered and included in the Commission’s Register of War Criminals for public record.
The tribunal is the initiative of Malaysia's retired Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who staunchly opposed the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
He sat through the entire hearing as it took personal statements and testimonies of three witnesses namely Abbas Abid, Moazzam Begg and Jameelah Hameedi. The tribunal also heard two other Statutory Declarations of Iraqi citizen Ali Shalal and Rahul Ahmed, another British citizen.
After the guilty verdict reached by five senior judges was delivered, Mahathir Mohamad said: “Powerful countries are getting away with murder.”
War crimes expert and lawyer Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law in America, was part of the prosecution team.
After the case he said: “This is the first conviction of these people anywhere in the world.”
While the hearing is regarded by some as being purely symbolic, human rights activist Boyle said he was hopeful that Bush and Co could soon find themselves facing similar trials elsewhere in the world.
“We tried three times to get Bush in Canada but were thwarted by the Canadian Government, then we scared Bush out of going to Switzerland. The Spanish attempt failed because of the government there and the same happened in Germany.”
Boyle then referenced the Nuremberg Charter which was used as the format for the tribunal when asked about the credibility of the initiative in Malaysia. He quoted: “Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit war crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any person in execution of such a plan.”
The US is subject to customary international law and to the Principles of the Nuremberg Charter said Boyle who also believes the week-long trial was “almost certainly” being monitored closely by both Pentagon and White House officials.
Professor Gurdial Singh Nijar, who headed the prosecution said: “The tribunal was very careful to adhere scrupulously to the regulations drawn up by the Nuremberg courts and the International Criminal Courts”.
He added that he was optimistic the tribunal would be followed up elsewhere in the world where “countries have a duty to try war criminals” and he cited the case of the former Chilean dictator Augustine Pinochet who was arrested in Britain to be extradited to Spain on charges of war crimes.
“Pinochet was only eight years out of his presidency when that happened.”
The Pinochet case was the first time that several European judges applied the principle of universal jurisdiction, declaring themselves competent to judge crimes committed by former heads of state, despite local amnesty laws.
Throughout the week the tribunal was packed with legal experts and law students as witnesses gave testimony and then cross examination by the defence led by lawyer Jason Kay Kit Leon.
The court heard how
· Abbas Abid, a 48-year-old engineer from Fallujah in Iraq had his fingernails removed by pliers.
· Ali Shalal was attached with bare electrical wires and electrocuted and hung from a wall.
· Moazzam Begg was beaten, hooded and put in solitary confinement.
· Jameelah was stripped and humiliated, and was used as a human shield whilst being transported by helicopter.
The witnesses also detailed how they have residual injuries till today.
Moazzam Begg, now working as a director for the London-based human rights group Cageprisoners said he was delighted with the verdict, but added: “When people talk about Nuremberg you have to remember those tried were all prosecuted after the war.
“Right now Guantanamo is still open, people are still being held there and are still being tortured there.”
In response to questions about the difference between the Bush and Obama Administrations, he added: “If President Bush was the President of extra-judicial torture then US President Barak Obama is the President of extra judicial killing through drone strikes. Our work has only just begun.”
The prosecution case rested on proving how the decision-makers at the highest level President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld, aided and abetted by the lawyers and the other commanders and CIA officials – all acted in concert. Torture was systematically applied and became an accepted norm.
According to the prosecution, the testimony of all the witnesses exposed a sustained perpetration of brutal, barbaric, cruel and dehumanising course of conduct against them.
These acts of crimes were applied cumulatively to inflict the worst possible pain and suffering, said lawyers.
The president of the tribunal Tan Sri Dato Lamin bin Haji Mohd Yunus Lamin, found that the prosecution had established beyond a “reasonable doubt that the accused persons, former President George Bush and his co-conspirators engaged in a web of instructions, memos, directives, legal advice and action that established a common plan and purpose, joint enterprise and/or conspiracy to commit the crimes of Torture and War Crimes, including and not limited to a common plan and purpose to commit the following crimes in relation to the “War on Terror” and the wars launched by the U.S. and others in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
President Lamin told a packed courtroom: “As a tribunal of conscience, the Tribunal is fully aware that its verdict is merely declaratory in nature. The tribunal has no power of enforcement, no power to impose any custodial sentence on any one or more of the 8 convicted persons. What we can do, under Article 31 of Chapter VI of Part 2 of the Charter is to recommend to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission to submit this finding of conviction by the Tribunal, together with a record of these proceedings, to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as the United Nations and the Security Council.
“The Tribunal also recommends to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission that the names of all the 8 convicted persons be entered and included in the Commission’s Register of War Criminals and be publicised accordingly.
“The Tribunal recommends to the War Crimes Commission to give the widest international publicity to this conviction and grant of reparations, as these are universal crimes for which there is a responsibility upon nations to institute prosecutions if any of these Accused persons may enter their jurisdictions”.
British journalist Yvonne Ridley is also a patron of Cageprisoners
60 Minutes Producer: "The Nazis Did A Lot Of This" : Information Clearing House
60 Minutes Producer: "The Nazis Did A Lot Of This" : Information Clearing House
He doesn't need to be interviewed by a fawning Leslie Stahl, whose report was as supine as it was selective. But at least here, you have the producer simply stating about the torture techniques embraced by Rodriguez: "The Nazis did a lot of this, the Khmer Rouge did a lot of this." So the producer realizes that he is featuring someone guilty of war crimes as bad as the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge, but wants him to give his side of the story. How about - you know - arresting him first? If this were a torturer from Iran, do you think he would have been treated so deferently? A reader writes:
He doesn't need to be interviewed by a fawning Leslie Stahl, whose report was as supine as it was selective. But at least here, you have the producer simply stating about the torture techniques embraced by Rodriguez: "The Nazis did a lot of this, the Khmer Rouge did a lot of this." So the producer realizes that he is featuring someone guilty of war crimes as bad as the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge, but wants him to give his side of the story. How about - you know - arresting him first? If this were a torturer from Iran, do you think he would have been treated so deferently? A reader writes:
Sunni Extremists Ravaging Syria Created by US in 2007 : Information Clearing House
Sunni Extremists Ravaging Syria Created by US in 2007 : Information Clearing House
Hersh's report had warned of the tragic consequences to be expected once this Sunni-front had been unleashed, namely, according to former CIA agent Robert Baer in Lebanon, " Sunni Arabs carrying out a "cataclysmic conflict." Baer warned of the need to protect Christians from a predictable onslaught by Sunni extremists - an onslaught now playing out against Syria's 10% Christian population, according to the LA Times' "Church fears 'ethnic cleansing' of Christians in Homs, Syria," (6) and more recently in USA Today's distorted, but still telling, "Christians in Syria live in uneasy alliance with Assad, Alawites." (7)
Christians are not the only minorities being targeted by the US-Israeli-Saudi terrorist front, but all minorities are as is secularism itself, being systematically targeted, as is the case after the NATO-backed dismemberment of Libya. (8)
Hersh's report had warned of the tragic consequences to be expected once this Sunni-front had been unleashed, namely, according to former CIA agent Robert Baer in Lebanon, " Sunni Arabs carrying out a "cataclysmic conflict." Baer warned of the need to protect Christians from a predictable onslaught by Sunni extremists - an onslaught now playing out against Syria's 10% Christian population, according to the LA Times' "Church fears 'ethnic cleansing' of Christians in Homs, Syria," (6) and more recently in USA Today's distorted, but still telling, "Christians in Syria live in uneasy alliance with Assad, Alawites." (7)
Christians are not the only minorities being targeted by the US-Israeli-Saudi terrorist front, but all minorities are as is secularism itself, being systematically targeted, as is the case after the NATO-backed dismemberment of Libya. (8)
Friday, 11 May 2012
War Is A Racket
War Is A Racket
He joined the Marine Corps when the Spanish American War broke out, earned the Brevette Medal during the Boxer Rebellion in China, saw action in Central America, and in France during World War I was promoted to Major General. Smedley Butler served his country for 34 years, yet he spoke against American armed intervention into the affairs of sovereign nations.
He joined the Marine Corps when the Spanish American War broke out, earned the Brevette Medal during the Boxer Rebellion in China, saw action in Central America, and in France during World War I was promoted to Major General. Smedley Butler served his country for 34 years, yet he spoke against American armed intervention into the affairs of sovereign nations.
Defense Dept. Course Instructed ‘Total War’ on Muslims, Advocated ‘Hiroshima’ Tactics -- News from Antiwar.com
Defense Dept. Course Instructed ‘Total War’ on Muslims, Advocated ‘Hiroshima’ Tactics -- News from Antiwar.com
The Defense Department taught students in the U.S. military that a “total war” against the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims is necessary to protect America from Islamic terrorists. The course material in the Joint Forces Staff College, since canceled for being “inflammatory,” instructed students that international laws protecting civilians in wartime are “no longer relevant,” and that we should apply “the historical precedents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki” to Islam’s holiest cities, and bringing about “Mecca and Medina['s] destruction.” The course material advocated targeting the “civilian population wherever necessary.”
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/total-war-islam/all/1
The Defense Department taught students in the U.S. military that a “total war” against the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims is necessary to protect America from Islamic terrorists. The course material in the Joint Forces Staff College, since canceled for being “inflammatory,” instructed students that international laws protecting civilians in wartime are “no longer relevant,” and that we should apply “the historical precedents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki” to Islam’s holiest cities, and bringing about “Mecca and Medina['s] destruction.” The course material advocated targeting the “civilian population wherever necessary.”
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/total-war-islam/all/1
Thursday, 10 May 2012
Bad for America, Bad for Israel, Bad for the World by Rep. Ron Paul -- Antiwar.com
Bad for America, Bad for Israel, Bad for the World by Rep. Ron Paul -- Antiwar.com
Mr. Speaker: I rise in opposition to H.R. 4133, the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act, which unfortunately is another piece of one-sided and counterproductive foreign policy legislation. This bill’s real intent seems to be more saber-rattling against Iran and Syria, and it undermines U.S. diplomatic efforts by making clear that the U.S. is not an honest broker seeking peace for the Middle East.
Mr. Speaker: I rise in opposition to H.R. 4133, the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act, which unfortunately is another piece of one-sided and counterproductive foreign policy legislation. This bill’s real intent seems to be more saber-rattling against Iran and Syria, and it undermines U.S. diplomatic efforts by making clear that the U.S. is not an honest broker seeking peace for the Middle East.
Are American Jews falling out of love with Israel? : Information Clearing House
Are American Jews falling out of love with Israel? : Information Clearing House
Are American Jews falling out of love with Israel?
Norman Finkelstein - Video - BBC HARDtalk
American Presidents have long been criticised for being too in thrall to the Jewish lobby. So what happens if American Jews fall out of love with Israel?
Are American Jews falling out of love with Israel?
Norman Finkelstein - Video - BBC HARDtalk
American Presidents have long been criticised for being too in thrall to the Jewish lobby. So what happens if American Jews fall out of love with Israel?
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
US attack kills 5 Afghan kids : Information Clearing House
US attack kills 5 Afghan kids : Information Clearing House
May 08, 2012 "Salon" -- Yesterday, I noted several reports from Afghanistan that as many as 20 civilians were killed by two NATO airstrikes, including a mother and her five children. Today, the U.S. confirmed at least some of those claims, acknowledging and apologizing for its responsibility for the death of that family:
May 08, 2012 "Salon" -- Yesterday, I noted several reports from Afghanistan that as many as 20 civilians were killed by two NATO airstrikes, including a mother and her five children. Today, the U.S. confirmed at least some of those claims, acknowledging and apologizing for its responsibility for the death of that family:
Top Republican Calls for Stepped-Up Interventionism in Latin America -- News from Antiwar.com
Top Republican Calls for Stepped-Up Interventionism in Latin America -- News from Antiwar.com
The top Republican in Congress on Tuesday called for stepping up U.S. “engagement” and interventionism in Latin America in order to obstruct various bogeymen that pose no threat to America.
“The best defense against an expansion of Iranian influence in Latin America – and against the destructive aspirations of international criminals in the region – is for the United States to double down on a policy of direct engagement,” U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said at the State Department.
Boehner said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visits to Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Ecuador in recent months “underscored the designs Iran has for expanding its influence in Latin America, and its eagerness to forge bonds with governments in the Western Hemisphere that have demonstrated a lesser interest in freedom and democracy.”
If diplomatic meetings between Iran and Latin American countries reveals Iran’s surreptitious imperial designs to expand its influence and threaten America, one has to wonder what encircling Iran with two aggressive American wars, dozens of U.S. military bases, missile defense systems, and fleets of navy warships looks like to the Islamic Republic.
As for forming bonds with the region’s undemocratic governments, the U.S. has Iran beat by a long shot. For over a hundred years, the United States has wrought terror, war, poverty, and repression throughout Latin America in the form of CIA-orchestrated military coups, support of terrorists and dictatorial regimes, and a very bloody war on drugs, all while peppering the entire region with the U.S. military.
Other than encroaching Iranian influence, an inflated threat that has been repeatedly debunked, Boehner said the drug cartels are the region’s next greatest threat. But Washington’s insistence on draconian prohibitionist policies and reliance on militarization of the drug war is what is emboldening and enriching the drug gangs by driving them into the black market. Several leaders throughout Latin America have asked the U.S. to consider decriminalization as a new approach, but have been rejected.
“We must be clear that we will be there, with our friends and partners in the region, committed to fighting and winning the war for a free, stable, and prosperous hemisphere,” Boehner added. Promising continued and increased U.S. presence in Latin America is a tradition that goes back a long time in the history of imperial foreign policy, but a free, stable, and prosperous hemisphere is precisely what America has prevented lo these hundred years.
The top Republican in Congress on Tuesday called for stepping up U.S. “engagement” and interventionism in Latin America in order to obstruct various bogeymen that pose no threat to America.
“The best defense against an expansion of Iranian influence in Latin America – and against the destructive aspirations of international criminals in the region – is for the United States to double down on a policy of direct engagement,” U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said at the State Department.
Boehner said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visits to Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Ecuador in recent months “underscored the designs Iran has for expanding its influence in Latin America, and its eagerness to forge bonds with governments in the Western Hemisphere that have demonstrated a lesser interest in freedom and democracy.”
If diplomatic meetings between Iran and Latin American countries reveals Iran’s surreptitious imperial designs to expand its influence and threaten America, one has to wonder what encircling Iran with two aggressive American wars, dozens of U.S. military bases, missile defense systems, and fleets of navy warships looks like to the Islamic Republic.
As for forming bonds with the region’s undemocratic governments, the U.S. has Iran beat by a long shot. For over a hundred years, the United States has wrought terror, war, poverty, and repression throughout Latin America in the form of CIA-orchestrated military coups, support of terrorists and dictatorial regimes, and a very bloody war on drugs, all while peppering the entire region with the U.S. military.
Other than encroaching Iranian influence, an inflated threat that has been repeatedly debunked, Boehner said the drug cartels are the region’s next greatest threat. But Washington’s insistence on draconian prohibitionist policies and reliance on militarization of the drug war is what is emboldening and enriching the drug gangs by driving them into the black market. Several leaders throughout Latin America have asked the U.S. to consider decriminalization as a new approach, but have been rejected.
“We must be clear that we will be there, with our friends and partners in the region, committed to fighting and winning the war for a free, stable, and prosperous hemisphere,” Boehner added. Promising continued and increased U.S. presence in Latin America is a tradition that goes back a long time in the history of imperial foreign policy, but a free, stable, and prosperous hemisphere is precisely what America has prevented lo these hundred years.
Supposed Would-Be Underwear Bomber Is CIA Informant -- News from Antiwar.com
Supposed Would-Be Underwear Bomber Is CIA Informant -- News from Antiwar.com
U.S. and Yemeni officials have confirmed that the supposed would-be underwear bomber at the heart of an al-Qaeda airliner plot revealed this week was actually an informant working for the CIA and Saudi intelligence all along.
Members of the Obama administration spent virtually all of yesterday parading throughout major media outlets claiming their intrepid counterterrorism efforts successfully foiled a terrorist plot to blow up an American airliner. But now officials have anonymously confirmed that the plot, like so many other “successfully foiled” terror attacks, was hatched by the CIA from the start.
Instead of showing that the CIA and the counterterrorism policies of the U.S. are keeping Americans safe from harm, or that al-Qaeda is making “inroads,” as former director of the National Counterterrorism Center Michael Leiter said, all this lauded incident shows is that the CIA can get weapons from shadowy sources and blow up planes, if it wanted to.
Officials say the informant was working for the CIA and Saudi Arabian intelligence when he was given the bomb by alleged terrorists. He then turned the device over to authorities.
This explains what many people had wondered about in the day since this supposed terror plot was revealed. There was so much secrecy about the plot, and zero information about who it was that attempted to bomb an airliner. Officials simply repeated that Americans were in no danger and the would-be bomber was “in no position to harm the United States.”
U.S. and Yemeni officials have confirmed that the supposed would-be underwear bomber at the heart of an al-Qaeda airliner plot revealed this week was actually an informant working for the CIA and Saudi intelligence all along.
Members of the Obama administration spent virtually all of yesterday parading throughout major media outlets claiming their intrepid counterterrorism efforts successfully foiled a terrorist plot to blow up an American airliner. But now officials have anonymously confirmed that the plot, like so many other “successfully foiled” terror attacks, was hatched by the CIA from the start.
Instead of showing that the CIA and the counterterrorism policies of the U.S. are keeping Americans safe from harm, or that al-Qaeda is making “inroads,” as former director of the National Counterterrorism Center Michael Leiter said, all this lauded incident shows is that the CIA can get weapons from shadowy sources and blow up planes, if it wanted to.
Officials say the informant was working for the CIA and Saudi Arabian intelligence when he was given the bomb by alleged terrorists. He then turned the device over to authorities.
This explains what many people had wondered about in the day since this supposed terror plot was revealed. There was so much secrecy about the plot, and zero information about who it was that attempted to bomb an airliner. Officials simply repeated that Americans were in no danger and the would-be bomber was “in no position to harm the United States.”
Former Labor Sec. Robert Reich on Clinton's Errors of Crippling Welfare to Repealing Glass-Steagall
Former Labor Sec. Robert Reich on Clinton's Errors of Crippling Welfare to Repealing Glass-Steagall
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich critiques President Obama’s handling of the economic crisis and the Clinton administration’s repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, a key deregulatory move that ended the separation of commercial and investment banking and is widely seen as having helped lead to the financial collapse. The Clinton administration also presided over a drastic transformation of U.S. welfare laws, throwing millions off of welfare rolls. "I went outside of the White House, walked back to my office along Constitution Avenue, expecting I would see signs. ... There are a lot of people who were concerned about that issue. But there was nobody on the streets. It was deafening. The silence was deafening," Reich says of the day Clinton signed the change into law. He notes this is when he realized, "if people who are concerned about the increasing concentration of wealth and power in this country are not mobilized, are not visible, then nothing progressive is going to happen." Reich is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has written 13 books, including "Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future." His latest, an e-book, is just out: "Beyond Outrage: What Has Gone Wrong with Our Economy and Our Democracy, and How to Fix Them." [includes rush transcript]
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich critiques President Obama’s handling of the economic crisis and the Clinton administration’s repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, a key deregulatory move that ended the separation of commercial and investment banking and is widely seen as having helped lead to the financial collapse. The Clinton administration also presided over a drastic transformation of U.S. welfare laws, throwing millions off of welfare rolls. "I went outside of the White House, walked back to my office along Constitution Avenue, expecting I would see signs. ... There are a lot of people who were concerned about that issue. But there was nobody on the streets. It was deafening. The silence was deafening," Reich says of the day Clinton signed the change into law. He notes this is when he realized, "if people who are concerned about the increasing concentration of wealth and power in this country are not mobilized, are not visible, then nothing progressive is going to happen." Reich is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has written 13 books, including "Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future." His latest, an e-book, is just out: "Beyond Outrage: What Has Gone Wrong with Our Economy and Our Democracy, and How to Fix Them." [includes rush transcript]
Friday, 4 May 2012
U.S. Spends Far More for Health Care Than 12 Industrialized Nations, but Quality Varies : Information Clearing House
U.S. Spends Far More for Health Care Than 12 Industrialized Nations, but Quality Varies : Information Clearing House
U.S. Spends Far More for Health Care Than 12 Industrialized Nations
By Mary Mahon
May 03, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- May 3, 2012, New York, NY—The United States spends more on health care than 12 other industrialized countries yet does not provide "notably superior" care, according to a new study from The Commonwealth Fund. The U.S. spent nearly $8,000 per person in 2009 on health care services, while other countries in the study spent between one-third (Japan and New Zealand) and two-thirds (Norway and Switzerland) as much. While the U.S. performs well on breast and colorectal cancer survival rates, it has among the highest rates of potentially preventable deaths from asthma and amputations due to diabetes, and rates that are no better than average for in-hospital deaths from heart attack and stroke.
U.S. Spends Far More for Health Care Than 12 Industrialized Nations
By Mary Mahon
May 03, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- May 3, 2012, New York, NY—The United States spends more on health care than 12 other industrialized countries yet does not provide "notably superior" care, according to a new study from The Commonwealth Fund. The U.S. spent nearly $8,000 per person in 2009 on health care services, while other countries in the study spent between one-third (Japan and New Zealand) and two-thirds (Norway and Switzerland) as much. While the U.S. performs well on breast and colorectal cancer survival rates, it has among the highest rates of potentially preventable deaths from asthma and amputations due to diabetes, and rates that are no better than average for in-hospital deaths from heart attack and stroke.
Finding Bin Laden: The Truth Behind the Official Story : Information Clearing House
Finding Bin Laden: The Truth Behind the Official Story : Information Clearing House
Finding Bin Laden: The Truth Behind the Official Story
By Gareth Porter
May 03, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- A few days after US Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden in a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a "senior intelligence official" briefing reporters on the materials seized from bin Laden's compound said the materials revealed that bin Laden had, "continued to direct even tactical details of the group's management." Bin Laden was, "not just a strategic thinker for the group," said the official. "He was active in operational planning and in driving tactical decisions." The official called the bin Laden compound, "an active command and control center."
The senior intelligence official triumphantly called the discovery of bin Laden's hideout, "the greatest intelligence success perhaps of a generation," and administration officials could not resist leaking to reporters that a key element in that success was that the CIA interrogators had gotten the name of bin Laden's trusted courier from al-Qaeda detainees at Guantanamo. CIA Director Leon Panetta was quite willing to leave the implication that some of the information had been obtained from detainees by "enhanced interrogation techniques."
Such was the official line at the time. But none of it was true. It is now clear that CIA officials were blatantly misrepresenting both bin Laden's role in al-Qaeda when he was killed and how the agency came to focus on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
In fact, during his six years in Abbottabad, bin Laden was not the functioning head of al-Qaeda at all, but an isolated figurehead who had become irrelevant to the actual operations of the organization. The real story, told here for the first time, is that bin Laden was in the compound in Abbottabad because he had been forced into exile by the al-Qaeda leadership.
Finding Bin Laden: The Truth Behind the Official Story
By Gareth Porter
May 03, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- A few days after US Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden in a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a "senior intelligence official" briefing reporters on the materials seized from bin Laden's compound said the materials revealed that bin Laden had, "continued to direct even tactical details of the group's management." Bin Laden was, "not just a strategic thinker for the group," said the official. "He was active in operational planning and in driving tactical decisions." The official called the bin Laden compound, "an active command and control center."
The senior intelligence official triumphantly called the discovery of bin Laden's hideout, "the greatest intelligence success perhaps of a generation," and administration officials could not resist leaking to reporters that a key element in that success was that the CIA interrogators had gotten the name of bin Laden's trusted courier from al-Qaeda detainees at Guantanamo. CIA Director Leon Panetta was quite willing to leave the implication that some of the information had been obtained from detainees by "enhanced interrogation techniques."
Such was the official line at the time. But none of it was true. It is now clear that CIA officials were blatantly misrepresenting both bin Laden's role in al-Qaeda when he was killed and how the agency came to focus on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
In fact, during his six years in Abbottabad, bin Laden was not the functioning head of al-Qaeda at all, but an isolated figurehead who had become irrelevant to the actual operations of the organization. The real story, told here for the first time, is that bin Laden was in the compound in Abbottabad because he had been forced into exile by the al-Qaeda leadership.
Thursday, 3 May 2012
United Methodists Call for Boycott of “products made by Israeli companies operating in occupied Palestinian territories” | BDSmovement.net
United Methodists Call for Boycott of “products made by Israeli companies operating in occupied Palestinian territories” | BDSmovement.net
United Methodists Call for Boycott of “products made by Israeli companies operating in occupied Palestinian territories”
http://www.bdsmovement.net/2012/united-methodists-call-for-boycott-of-products-made-by-israeli-companies-operating-in-occupied-palestinian-territories-8999
Adopting the “Kairos Palestine” document, Methodists Elevate Palestinian Rights and Israel Divestment to Mainstream Prominence
“Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory.” –Gandhi
Occupied Palestine, 3 May 2012 – The General Conference of the United Methodist Church decided yesterday to call for an explicit boycott of all Israeli companies “operating in the occupied Palestinian territories,” knowing that this constitutes the absolute majority of Israeli corporations. This and the overwhelming support for the “Kairos Palestine” document and its call “for an end to military occupation and human rights violations through nonviolent actions,” which include boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), will pave the way forward for further action by the Church to hold Israel accountable for its colonial and apartheid regime.
Although the General Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) fell short of voting for divestment from three U.S. corporations that are actively complicit in Israel’s protracted occupation and serious violations of international law, the inspiring awareness raising and advocacy campaign waged by human rights activists within the Church and in many communities outside it has succeeded in elevating Israel divestment and the struggle for Palestinian rights to mainstream prominence. Notwithstanding this decision, four annual (regional) conferences within the UMC have already adopted Israel divestment resolutions.
The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), the broadest coalition of Palestinian political parties, trade unions, NGOs and networks, whose BDS Call is supported by Palestinian church groups from all major Christian denominations, salutes all the people of conscience, especially within the UMC, who relentlessly, meticulously and with immense selflessness labored to convince the Church to align its investment policy with its ethical principles that reject injustice and oppression. Caterpillar, Motorola and Hewlett Packard should not take too much comfort in this temporary setback; while they are off the hook for now, many more people today know exactly what these companies are doing in violation of international law and will soon hold them accountable.
As a result of repeated disinformation and fear mongering by some Church officials responsible for its investment branch, a majority of UMC delegates still feel that divesting from companies profiting from human rights violations is a considerable and unnecessary sacrifice. The widely expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people, and with Palestinian Christians in particular, who overwhelmingly called on the Church to divest, was thus not translated into action that heeds the moral obligation to do no harm. By continuing to invest in companies that profit from the Israeli occupation and human rights violations, and despite all intentions, the UMC is still doing harm to the Palestinian people through its financial complicity in maintaining the occupation.
Efforts by BDS activists from around the world are sending a strong message to corporations that their collusion in Israel’s unlawful occupation and serious violations of international law is under scrutiny and will not be tolerated. A recent research report exposed Hewlett Packard’s role in sustaining the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people, with its supply of biometric monitoring systems to Israeli military checkpoints inside the occupied West Bank and technological solutions to Israel’s army and illegal colonial settlements, contributing to the caging of Palestinians in fragmented ghettos[1]. Motorola provides surveillance systems for Israeli settlements, military bases and the apartheid wall, and communications equipment to the Israeli occupation army.[2]
The General Conference, taking place this year in Tampa, FL, meets every four years and is the only entity that speaks for The United Methodist Church.[3] The process and international debates leading to the vote on this divestment resolution mark a milestone in the persistent efforts of Christians around the world and Methodists in particular to bring concrete meaning to a long-standing ethical Church position in support of ending Israel’s occupation and human rights violations. The setback notwithstanding, this debate over how best to hold Israel accountable for human rights violations is largely viewed as ushering in a new phase in faith groups’ activism for Palestinian rights reminiscent of similar measures that eventually contributed to dismantling South African apartheid.
The impressive mobilization in support of this divestment resolution united people from diverse backgrounds, including scores of Jewish human rights activists, mostly associated with Jewish Voice for Peace, who proudly spoke out for an end to church material support to Israel’s occupation.[4] It constitutes a distinguished contribution to the Palestinian people’s struggle to achieve its full set of human rights, which includes also full equality for Palestinians citizens of Israel, and the right of return of Palestinian refugees as guaranteed by international law. UMC activists, who led this effort with diligence and utmost attention to accuracy, moral consistency and effective advocacy, deserve warm praise and gratitude from all of us struggling for a just peace in Palestine and the region. The supportive role of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation in this mobilization must also be acknowledged and commended. While the profound obligation to “do no harm” was not honored by many in the General Conference, it has become a rallying cry for human rights activists everywhere, including within the Church. This setback notwithstanding, we are confident that campaigns of misinformation and vilification by well-oiled pro-Israel lobbies and putting profit ahead of principle by some will not for long drown the voices of the many Methodists who stand, in word and in deed, behind Palestinian freedom, justice and equality.
In 2009, prominent Palestinian Christians issued the “Kairos Palestine” document[5], a historic theological manifesto that seeks inspiration from a similar document issued in 1985 by South African theologians, detailing their vision for justice and the obligation to resist injustice. Kairos Palestine explicitly advocates BDS against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law.[6] The following year, United Methodist clergy and laity from the US responded to the “Kairos Palestine” document with grassroots educational and research efforts to understand the full extent of the impact of UMC investments that directly result in the oppression of Palestinians. These efforts culminated in the resolution[7] presented at this year’s General Conference and voted upon by the 988 delegates present from around the world.
A recent report by the Presbyterian Church (USA), whose divestment resolution will come to a vote at the general assembly scheduled for July, shows that years of engagement — 8 years, to be exact — with Caterpillar, which supplies Israel with bulldozers used to wantonly destroy Palestinian property and build apartheid infrastructure, have failed to convince the company to change its behavior thus making divestment an imperative.[8] Targeted divestment is, therefore, the minimum required to express effective solidarity with Palestinians languishing under and resisting Israel’s occupation, colonization and apartheid.
The BDS movement has opened space for much needed debate in the U.S. public sphere about Israel’s three-tiered system of oppression against Palestinians and is now becoming a household name. The road to ultimate victory over oppression, as Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr. teach us, is never straight or paved with flowers; every turn and decline are opportunities to learn how to persevere and to rise stronger against the challenges ahead.
We salute the genuine moral voices in the United Methodist Church for their sincere efforts to put truth to action, to bring justice and freedom for all in the land that is the birthplace of Christianity.
_______________________________________________
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United Methodists Call for Boycott of “products made by Israeli companies operating in occupied Palestinian territories”
http://www.bdsmovement.net/2012/united-methodists-call-for-boycott-of-products-made-by-israeli-companies-operating-in-occupied-palestinian-territories-8999
Adopting the “Kairos Palestine” document, Methodists Elevate Palestinian Rights and Israel Divestment to Mainstream Prominence
“Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory.” –Gandhi
Occupied Palestine, 3 May 2012 – The General Conference of the United Methodist Church decided yesterday to call for an explicit boycott of all Israeli companies “operating in the occupied Palestinian territories,” knowing that this constitutes the absolute majority of Israeli corporations. This and the overwhelming support for the “Kairos Palestine” document and its call “for an end to military occupation and human rights violations through nonviolent actions,” which include boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), will pave the way forward for further action by the Church to hold Israel accountable for its colonial and apartheid regime.
Although the General Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) fell short of voting for divestment from three U.S. corporations that are actively complicit in Israel’s protracted occupation and serious violations of international law, the inspiring awareness raising and advocacy campaign waged by human rights activists within the Church and in many communities outside it has succeeded in elevating Israel divestment and the struggle for Palestinian rights to mainstream prominence. Notwithstanding this decision, four annual (regional) conferences within the UMC have already adopted Israel divestment resolutions.
The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), the broadest coalition of Palestinian political parties, trade unions, NGOs and networks, whose BDS Call is supported by Palestinian church groups from all major Christian denominations, salutes all the people of conscience, especially within the UMC, who relentlessly, meticulously and with immense selflessness labored to convince the Church to align its investment policy with its ethical principles that reject injustice and oppression. Caterpillar, Motorola and Hewlett Packard should not take too much comfort in this temporary setback; while they are off the hook for now, many more people today know exactly what these companies are doing in violation of international law and will soon hold them accountable.
As a result of repeated disinformation and fear mongering by some Church officials responsible for its investment branch, a majority of UMC delegates still feel that divesting from companies profiting from human rights violations is a considerable and unnecessary sacrifice. The widely expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people, and with Palestinian Christians in particular, who overwhelmingly called on the Church to divest, was thus not translated into action that heeds the moral obligation to do no harm. By continuing to invest in companies that profit from the Israeli occupation and human rights violations, and despite all intentions, the UMC is still doing harm to the Palestinian people through its financial complicity in maintaining the occupation.
Efforts by BDS activists from around the world are sending a strong message to corporations that their collusion in Israel’s unlawful occupation and serious violations of international law is under scrutiny and will not be tolerated. A recent research report exposed Hewlett Packard’s role in sustaining the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people, with its supply of biometric monitoring systems to Israeli military checkpoints inside the occupied West Bank and technological solutions to Israel’s army and illegal colonial settlements, contributing to the caging of Palestinians in fragmented ghettos[1]. Motorola provides surveillance systems for Israeli settlements, military bases and the apartheid wall, and communications equipment to the Israeli occupation army.[2]
The General Conference, taking place this year in Tampa, FL, meets every four years and is the only entity that speaks for The United Methodist Church.[3] The process and international debates leading to the vote on this divestment resolution mark a milestone in the persistent efforts of Christians around the world and Methodists in particular to bring concrete meaning to a long-standing ethical Church position in support of ending Israel’s occupation and human rights violations. The setback notwithstanding, this debate over how best to hold Israel accountable for human rights violations is largely viewed as ushering in a new phase in faith groups’ activism for Palestinian rights reminiscent of similar measures that eventually contributed to dismantling South African apartheid.
The impressive mobilization in support of this divestment resolution united people from diverse backgrounds, including scores of Jewish human rights activists, mostly associated with Jewish Voice for Peace, who proudly spoke out for an end to church material support to Israel’s occupation.[4] It constitutes a distinguished contribution to the Palestinian people’s struggle to achieve its full set of human rights, which includes also full equality for Palestinians citizens of Israel, and the right of return of Palestinian refugees as guaranteed by international law. UMC activists, who led this effort with diligence and utmost attention to accuracy, moral consistency and effective advocacy, deserve warm praise and gratitude from all of us struggling for a just peace in Palestine and the region. The supportive role of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation in this mobilization must also be acknowledged and commended. While the profound obligation to “do no harm” was not honored by many in the General Conference, it has become a rallying cry for human rights activists everywhere, including within the Church. This setback notwithstanding, we are confident that campaigns of misinformation and vilification by well-oiled pro-Israel lobbies and putting profit ahead of principle by some will not for long drown the voices of the many Methodists who stand, in word and in deed, behind Palestinian freedom, justice and equality.
In 2009, prominent Palestinian Christians issued the “Kairos Palestine” document[5], a historic theological manifesto that seeks inspiration from a similar document issued in 1985 by South African theologians, detailing their vision for justice and the obligation to resist injustice. Kairos Palestine explicitly advocates BDS against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law.[6] The following year, United Methodist clergy and laity from the US responded to the “Kairos Palestine” document with grassroots educational and research efforts to understand the full extent of the impact of UMC investments that directly result in the oppression of Palestinians. These efforts culminated in the resolution[7] presented at this year’s General Conference and voted upon by the 988 delegates present from around the world.
A recent report by the Presbyterian Church (USA), whose divestment resolution will come to a vote at the general assembly scheduled for July, shows that years of engagement — 8 years, to be exact — with Caterpillar, which supplies Israel with bulldozers used to wantonly destroy Palestinian property and build apartheid infrastructure, have failed to convince the company to change its behavior thus making divestment an imperative.[8] Targeted divestment is, therefore, the minimum required to express effective solidarity with Palestinians languishing under and resisting Israel’s occupation, colonization and apartheid.
The BDS movement has opened space for much needed debate in the U.S. public sphere about Israel’s three-tiered system of oppression against Palestinians and is now becoming a household name. The road to ultimate victory over oppression, as Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr. teach us, is never straight or paved with flowers; every turn and decline are opportunities to learn how to persevere and to rise stronger against the challenges ahead.
We salute the genuine moral voices in the United Methodist Church for their sincere efforts to put truth to action, to bring justice and freedom for all in the land that is the birthplace of Christianity.
_______________________________________________
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What Obama Knows : Information Clearing House
What Obama Knows : Information Clearing House
What Obama Knows
By Fidel Castro
May 01, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- The most demolishing article I have seen nowadays about Latin America was written by Renán Vega Cantor, full professor at the National Pedagogical University of Bogotá, which was published three days ago by the website ‘Rebelión’ under the title Rebelión’ under the title “Ecos de la Cumbre de las Américas” (Echoes of the Summit of the Americas).
It is a brief article and I should make no summary. Those who specialize on the subject can look it up at the aforementioned website.
What Obama Knows
By Fidel Castro
May 01, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- The most demolishing article I have seen nowadays about Latin America was written by Renán Vega Cantor, full professor at the National Pedagogical University of Bogotá, which was published three days ago by the website ‘Rebelión’ under the title Rebelión’ under the title “Ecos de la Cumbre de las Américas” (Echoes of the Summit of the Americas).
It is a brief article and I should make no summary. Those who specialize on the subject can look it up at the aforementioned website.
Broken Spring? : Information Clearing House
Broken Spring? : Information Clearing House
This is a sequel to my June 2011 article, ‘After the spring’, on the upheavals in the Arab world. It is an article that has been painful to write, because it brings bad tidings and offers a pessimistic analysis of the upheavals, at least in the short term, in a number of Arab countries. The outcomes and potential outcomes of these uprisings have also acquired new, very significant dimensions. These include a complex entanglement with the accelerated preparations for a possible attack on Iran, and a poisonous, sectarian aspect that could have the consequence of ripping Syria and the Middle East apart.
This is a sequel to my June 2011 article, ‘After the spring’, on the upheavals in the Arab world. It is an article that has been painful to write, because it brings bad tidings and offers a pessimistic analysis of the upheavals, at least in the short term, in a number of Arab countries. The outcomes and potential outcomes of these uprisings have also acquired new, very significant dimensions. These include a complex entanglement with the accelerated preparations for a possible attack on Iran, and a poisonous, sectarian aspect that could have the consequence of ripping Syria and the Middle East apart.
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
We Japanese Americans Must Not Forget Our Wartime Internment : Information Clearing House
We Japanese Americans Must Not Forget Our Wartime Internment : Information Clearing House
We Japanese Americans Must Not Forget Our Wartime Internment
The degrading treatment of Japanese American families like mine is the theme of my new musical, Allegiance
By George Takei
May 01, 2012 "The Guardian" -- Seventy years ago, US soldiers bearing bayoneted rifles came marching up to the front door of our family's home in Los Angeles, ordering us out. Our crime was looking like the people who had bombed Pearl Harbor a few months before. I'll never forget that day, nor the tears streaming down my mother's face as we were forcibly removed, herded off like animals, to a nearby race track. There, for weeks, we would live in a filthy horse stable while our "permanent" relocation camp was being constructed thousands of miles away in Arkansas, in a place called Rohwer.
We Japanese Americans Must Not Forget Our Wartime Internment
The degrading treatment of Japanese American families like mine is the theme of my new musical, Allegiance
By George Takei
May 01, 2012 "The Guardian" -- Seventy years ago, US soldiers bearing bayoneted rifles came marching up to the front door of our family's home in Los Angeles, ordering us out. Our crime was looking like the people who had bombed Pearl Harbor a few months before. I'll never forget that day, nor the tears streaming down my mother's face as we were forcibly removed, herded off like animals, to a nearby race track. There, for weeks, we would live in a filthy horse stable while our "permanent" relocation camp was being constructed thousands of miles away in Arkansas, in a place called Rohwer.
May Day – Mayday : Information Clearing House
May Day – Mayday : Information Clearing House
May 01, 2012 "Information Clearing House" --- The history of May 1 as a workers’ holiday is intimately tied to the generations-long movement for the eight-hour day, to immigrant workers, to police brutality and repression of the labour movement, and to the long tradition of American anarchism.
May 01, 2012 "Information Clearing House" --- The history of May 1 as a workers’ holiday is intimately tied to the generations-long movement for the eight-hour day, to immigrant workers, to police brutality and repression of the labour movement, and to the long tradition of American anarchism.
George Monbiot: Empire of Capital : Information Clearing House
George Monbiot: Empire of Capital : Information Clearing House
The conviction of Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, is said to have sent an unequivocal message to current leaders: that great office confers no immunity. In fact it sent two messages: if you run a small, weak nation, you may be subject to the full force of international law. If you run a powerful nation, you have nothing to fear.
While anyone with an interest in human rights should welcome the verdict, it reminds us that no one has faced legal consequences for launching the illegal war against Iraq. This fits the Nuremberg Tribunal’s definition of a “crime of aggression”, which it called “the supreme international crime”(1). The charges on which, in an impartial system, George Bush, Tony Blair and their associates should have been investigated are far graver than those for which Taylor was found guilty.
The conviction of Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, is said to have sent an unequivocal message to current leaders: that great office confers no immunity. In fact it sent two messages: if you run a small, weak nation, you may be subject to the full force of international law. If you run a powerful nation, you have nothing to fear.
While anyone with an interest in human rights should welcome the verdict, it reminds us that no one has faced legal consequences for launching the illegal war against Iraq. This fits the Nuremberg Tribunal’s definition of a “crime of aggression”, which it called “the supreme international crime”(1). The charges on which, in an impartial system, George Bush, Tony Blair and their associates should have been investigated are far graver than those for which Taylor was found guilty.
Israeli Military Shrugs Off 2009 Killing of Gaza Family, Closes Probe -- News from Antiwar.com
Israeli Military Shrugs Off 2009 Killing of Gaza Family, Closes Probe -- News from Antiwar.com
The Israeli military has today announced that it is closing its investigation of the January 2009 killing of 21 members of a single family in the Gaza Strip, saying that “no legal steps” will be taken against those responsible for the deaths.
The Israeli military has today announced that it is closing its investigation of the January 2009 killing of 21 members of a single family in the Gaza Strip, saying that “no legal steps” will be taken against those responsible for the deaths.
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
US Military Underreporting Fighting Between Afghan and NATO Troops -- News from Antiwar.com
US Military Underreporting Fighting Between Afghan and NATO Troops -- News from Antiwar.com
The U.S. military is concealing the frequency of incidents in which Afghan soldiers open fire on American and other NATO troops, according to the Associated Press.
Afghan and American soldiers have increasingly got into gun battles with each other, a signal of how much of a failure is one of the primary missions in the war in Afghanistan: training Afghan forces. American and NATO troops are frequently killed or injured in these clashes, but the Army only reports them some of the time.
“The U.S.-led coalition routinely reports each time an American or other foreign soldier is killed by an Afghan in uniform,” the Associated Press reports. But “it does not report insider attacks in which the Afghan wounds — or misses — his U.S. or allied target. It also doesn’t report the wounding of troops who were attacked alongside those who were killed.”
In 2011, 35 NATO troops were killed by their Afghan counterparts, according to figures provided by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), compared with 20 deaths in 2010. So far this year, 10 separate attacks have killed 19 ISAF service members, but the number of total attacks and the total number wounded have not been reported.
While unacceptable, the military’s systematic under-reporting of these incidents is not surprising. Support for the war – which has hit all-time lows in recent weeks – depends upon favorable information getting out. If the information doesn’t reflect well on the war, it is liable to be hidden from the people.
The U.S. military is concealing the frequency of incidents in which Afghan soldiers open fire on American and other NATO troops, according to the Associated Press.
Afghan and American soldiers have increasingly got into gun battles with each other, a signal of how much of a failure is one of the primary missions in the war in Afghanistan: training Afghan forces. American and NATO troops are frequently killed or injured in these clashes, but the Army only reports them some of the time.
“The U.S.-led coalition routinely reports each time an American or other foreign soldier is killed by an Afghan in uniform,” the Associated Press reports. But “it does not report insider attacks in which the Afghan wounds — or misses — his U.S. or allied target. It also doesn’t report the wounding of troops who were attacked alongside those who were killed.”
In 2011, 35 NATO troops were killed by their Afghan counterparts, according to figures provided by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), compared with 20 deaths in 2010. So far this year, 10 separate attacks have killed 19 ISAF service members, but the number of total attacks and the total number wounded have not been reported.
While unacceptable, the military’s systematic under-reporting of these incidents is not surprising. Support for the war – which has hit all-time lows in recent weeks – depends upon favorable information getting out. If the information doesn’t reflect well on the war, it is liable to be hidden from the people.
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