Suicide Bombers Attack Iraq Funeral, Police; 109 Killed, 173 Wounded -- Antiwar.com

Suicide Bombers Attack Iraq Funeral, Police; 109 Killed, 173 Wounded -- Antiwar.com
At least 109 people were killed and 173 more were wounded today, mostly in two brazen attacks. In the worst assault, suicide bombers targeted a funeral in heavily populated Sadr City. Suicide bombers, these wearing police uniforms, also took advantage of a national police station in the north, as the commandos were out on maneuvers.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/suicide-bomber-hits-pakistan-church-25-dead-20332544
A pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up amid hundreds of worshippers at a historic church in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing 78 people in the deadliest-ever attack against the country's Christian minority.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/23/world/africa/nairobi-mall-shooting.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
NAIROBI, Kenya — The deadly siege at a mall in Nairobi continued Sunday, as the Kenyan government struggled with the question of whether to storm the Shabab militant attackers still holed up inside or keep trying to free people trapped inside after more than 24 hours.       
http://www.aim.org/aim-column/obama-arming-syrian-terrorists/
It sounds like a sensational charge. “Twelve years after we were attacked by al Qaeda, 12 years after 3,000 Americans were killed by al Qaeda, President Obama now asks us to be allies with al Qaeda,” Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) says.

Photo: French aid convoy diplomat dragged on ground by Israeli soldiers

Photo: French aid convoy diplomat dragged on ground by Israeli soldiers

Rabbi patrols Israeli town to drive away Africans: video

Rabbi patrols Israeli town to drive away Africans: video
When Senator Barack Obama visited the Israeli town of Sderot, as part of his presidential election campaign in June 2008, he received an enthusiastic welcome despite the fact that his father was from Kenya.
But migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers from African countries arriving in the town today receive a very different welcome, as local rabbi Ariel Bareli works to drive them away.
Journalist and videographer David Sheen caught Bareli on video explaining his tactics “to convince people to not rent them apartments.”

Secret Deal Between NSA, Israel Likely Involves Sharing of Data from Americans’ Communications

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/09/11/secret-deal-between-nsa-israel-likely-involves-sharing-of-data-from-americans-communications/

By: Kevin Gosztola Wednesday September 11, 2013 12:15 pm

US Department of Defense Photo

Raw intelligence data that likely includes phone calls and emails of American citizens is being provided by the NSA to Israeli intelligence, according to a top secret document provided to The Guardian by former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Nearly 50 Dead as Rebels, Kurds Clash in Syria -- News from Antiwar.com

Nearly 50 Dead as Rebels, Kurds Clash in Syria -- News from Antiwar.com
Another round of deadly fighting has been reported today in Syria’s northeastern Hassakah Province, where members of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), an al-Qaeda affiliate, battled members of a Kurdish militia.

Al-Qaeda Seizes Syria Village, Kills 22 Alawite Civilians -- News from Antiwar.com

Al-Qaeda Seizes Syria Village, Kills 22 Alawite Civilians -- News from Antiwar.com
Al-Qaeda faction Jabhat al-Nusra has captured the village of Maksar al-Hesan today, east of the Syrian city of Homs, and has killed 22 Alawite civilians, including children, according to pro-rebel faction the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syria Ratifies Chemical Weapons Ban -- News from Antiwar.com

Syria Ratifies Chemical Weapons Ban -- News from Antiwar.com
Following hot on the heels of comments by President Bashar Assad backing the idea, the Syrian government has formally ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), obliging them to end production of chemical weapons and move toward their eventual destruction.

Paul Craig Roberts: Too Many Years Of Lies: From Mossadeq to 9/11

Paul Craig Roberts: Too Many Years Of Lies: From Mossadeq to 9/11

September 10, 2013 "Information Clearing House - Washington has been at war for 12 years. According to experts such as Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, these wars have cost Americans approximately $6 trillion, enough to keep Social Security and Medicare sound for years. All there is to show for 12 years of war is fat bank balances for the armament industries and a list of destroyed countries with millions of dead and dislocated people who never lifted a hand against the United States.

Noam Chomsky - If the Nuremberg Laws Were Applied...

Noam Chomsky - If the Nuremberg Laws Were Applied...

September 05, 2013 "Information Clearing House - - If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged. By violation of the Nuremberg laws I mean the same kind of crimes for which people were hanged in Nuremberg. And Nuremberg means Nuremberg and Tokyo. So first of all you've got to think back as to what people were hanged for at Nuremberg and Tokyo. And once you think back, the question doesn't even require a moment's waste of time. For example, one general at the Tokyo trials, which were the worst, General Yamashita, was hanged on the grounds that troops in the Philippines, which were technically under his command (though it was so late in the war that he had no contact with them -- it was the very end of the war and there were some troops running around the Philippines who he had no contact with), had carried out atrocities, so he was hanged. Well, try that one out and you've already wiped out everybody. 

Winston Churchill's Shocking Use of Chemical Weapons

Winston Churchill's Shocking Use of Chemical Weapons

The use of chemical weapons in Syria has outraged the world. But it is easy to forget that Britain has used them – and that Winston Churchill was a powerful advocate for them

By Giles Milton 

Revealed: Britain Sold Nerve Gas Chemicals to Syria 10 Months After War Began

Revealed: Britain Sold Nerve Gas Chemicals to Syria 10 Months After War Began

FURIOUS politicians have demanded Prime Minister David Cameron explain why chemical export licences were granted to firms last January – 10 months after the Syrian uprising began.

By Russell Findlay

54 killed, 36 missing in Brono Boko Haram attacks

54 killed, 36 missing in Brono Boko Haram attacks
BY NDAHI MARAMA, MAIDUGURI Atleast 54 people including 24 vigilante youths (Civilian JTF), 14 Shuwa Arab herdsmen and 16 civilians were killed by suspected Boko Haram terrorists in three different Local Government Areas of Monguno, Damboa and Nganzai in Borno state. Details later pls. - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/54-killed-36-missing-in-brono-boko-haram-attacks/#sthash.GddTyqAf.dpuf

Cornel West Says Both Dyson and Sharpton Have Prost!tuted Themselves For Obama

Cornel West Says Both Dyson and Sharpton Have Prost!tuted Themselves For Obama

“Instead,” he said regrettfully, “we saw the coronation of the bonafide house negro of the Barack Obama plantation, our dear brother Al Sharpton.” West then added that Sharpton’s unprincipled position was “supported by [MSNBC analyst] Michael Dyson and others who’ve prost!tuted themselves in a very ugly and vicious way.”

BBC Editor Urged Colleagues to Downplay Israel’s Siege of Gaza

BBC Editor Urged Colleagues to Downplay Israel’s Siege of Gaza

August 31, 2013 "Information Clearing House - "Foreign Policy Initiative" - WASHINGTON, D.C. – Seventy-four former U.S. government officials and foreign policy experts have now signed a bipartisan open letter to President Barack Obama, urging a decisive response to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's recent large-scale use of chemical weapons. The group recommends direct military strikes against the pillars of the Assad regime, along with accelerated efforts to vet, train, and arm moderate elements of Syria's internal opposition.

Finian Cunningham: People of the World are Fighting Back

Finian Cunningham: People of the World are Fighting Back

As the US prepares to launch an overt war on Syria (the covert war has been raging for 30 months), the vast majority of humanity can finally see through all its decades of pretense and conceit as the world’s model of democracy and international law. And what they see is the ugly opposite. The US is a terrorist state that holds international law, democracy and human rights in utter contempt. It is ready, as it always has been, to kill countless civilians for its selfish political ambitions. That is the conventional definition of “terrorism”.

Finian Cunningham: People of the World are Fighting Back

Finian Cunningham: People of the World are Fighting Back

What the deluded Americans do not seem to realize is that they are on their own. The only entities willing to support their aggression on Syria is Saudi Arabia and Israel.

By Finian Cunningham

Commentary: America's Syria Folly | The National Interest

Commentary: America's Syria Folly | The National Interest

Kucinich: Syria strike would turn US into 'al Qaeda's air force'

Kucinich: Syria strike would turn US into 'al Qaeda's air force'

Kucinich: Syria Strike Would Turn US Into 'al Qaeda's Air Force'

By Julian Pecquet 

August 28, 2013 "Information Clearing House - Airstrikes on Syria would turn the U.S. military into “al Qaeda's air force,” former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) told The Hill.

The outspoken anti-war activist said any such action would plunge the United States into another war in the Middle East and embolden Islamist militants fighting Bashar Assad's regime.

“So what, we're about to become Al Qaeda's air force now?” Kucinich said. “This is a very, 

Russian President, Saudi Spy Chief Discussed Syria, Egypt

Russian President, Saudi Spy Chief Discussed Syria, Egypt
August 25, 2013 "Information Clearing House -  A diplomatic report about the “stormy meeting” in July between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan concluded that the region stretching from North Africa to Chechnya and from Iran to Syria — in other words, the entire Middle East — has come under the influence of an open US-Russian face-off and that “it is not unlikely that things [will] take a dramatic turn in Lebanon, in both the political and security senses, in light of the major Saudi decision to respond to Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian crisis.”

A Time to Break Silence: By Rev. Martin Luther King

A Time to Break Silence: By Rev. Martin Luther King

“This return is permanent” — refugees’ grandchildren defy Israel with Galilee camp

“This return is permanent” — refugees’ grandchildren defy Israel with Galilee camp

Young people with family connections to Iqrit, an ethnically-cleansed village in theGalilee, assembled recently for a week-long “camp of return.”

Chemical Missile Launched from Rebel-controlled Eastern Suburbs

Chemical Missile Launched from Rebel-controlled Eastern Suburbs

August 21, 2013 "Information Clearing House - "VOR"   The missile with a chemical poison gas sarine was launched by Syrian rebels and targeted the eastern suburbs of Damascus. This is according to the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.

Gaza rejoices in prisoner release but 5,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli jails

Gaza rejoices in prisoner release but 5,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli jails

The Power of Edward Snowden

The Power of Edward Snowden

The Power of Edward Snowden

By Philip Weiss

August 10, 2013 "Information Clearing House -   Consider the power of Edward Snowden. 

Six weeks after Obama declared, "I'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker," he's canceled a summit because of him. Obama won't be meeting with Vladimir Putin because Putin extended temporary asylum to Edward Snowden. Some news accounts say it's a new Cold War.

Saudi Rulers Pour Money Into Arming Militants in Region

Saudi Rulers Pour Money Into Arming Militants in Region

 August 11, 2013 "Information Clearing House -  If Saudi rulers had more brains, they might be formidably dangerous. Even with lackluster intelligence assets, they are already causing enough havoc and bloodshed across the Middle East and North Africa regions, pouring millions-of-dollars-worth of weaponry into Al Qaeda and other Takfiri networks that are destroying once proud civilizations in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Libya through nihilistic sectarianism.

More Democratic Freedoms in Saudi Arabia? Not Going to Happen

More Democratic Freedoms in Saudi Arabia? Not Going to Happen
August 12, 2013 "Information Clearing House - "RT" -  Saudi Arabia policies are enormously hypocritical. They discriminate against 10 percent of their own population, the Shiites, while saying they are intervening in Syria for more democracy, journalist Pepe Escobar told RT.

Canada’s double standards on Middle East sink to new low

Canada’s double standards on Middle East sink to new low


The extremism of Canada’s support for Israel just keeps growing.
The latest example is the Conservative government in Ottawa helping convince the European Union to list Hizballah’s military wing as a “terrorist” organization. After that decision was taken, Foreign Minister John Baird declared, “We are thrilled that the European Union unanimously has agreed to designate Hizballah as a terrorist organization. We’ve been pushing for this.”

Assange hails Obama spy scheme reform - Americas - Al Jazeera English

Assange hails Obama spy scheme reform - Americas - Al Jazeera English

Christian Zionism: The Heresy that Undermines Middle East Peace

Christian Zionism: The Heresy that Undermines Middle East Peace

Christian Zionism is the largest, most controversial and most destructive lobby within Christianity. It bears primary responsibility for perpetuating tensions in the Middle East, justifying Israel’s apartheid colonialist agenda and for undermining the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians

“Big Data” Dynamo: How Giant Tech Firms Help the Government Spy on Us and Gut Privacy

“Big Data” Dynamo: How Giant Tech Firms Help the Government Spy on Us and Gut Privacy

July 29, 2013 "Information Clearing House -  As the secret state continues trawling the electronic communications of hundreds of millions of Americans, lusting after what securocrats euphemistically call "actionable intelligence," a notional tipping point that transforms a "good" citizen into a "criminal" suspect, the role played by telecommunications and technology firms cannot be emphasized enough.

Bradley Manning Lynched by the US Government

Bradley Manning Lynched by the US Government

August 01, 2013 "Information Clearing House -  The verdict for Manning was predetermined, and the show trial in a kangaroo court – a post-modern American remix of China in the 1960s during the Cultural Revolution – just signed, sealed and delivered it.

The President of the United States (POTUS) had already said he was guilty. US corporate media had been screaming for three years he was guilty. Now the US government – who criminalized Manning with “evil intent” - has shown there will be hell to pay for anyone who dares to reveal American war crimes, which are, by definition, unpunishable. 

The U.S. Military Has Awarded Contracts To Al-Qaeda In Afghanistan

The U.S. Military Has Awarded Contracts To Al-Qaeda In Afghanistan

U.S. Military Has Awarded Contracts To Al-Qaeda In Afghanistan

By Michael Krieger

August 01, 2013 "Information Clearing House -  I suppose it just wasn’t enough that our allies, “the rebels” in Syria, have significant Al-Qaeda elements to them. No, we are the USA! USA! Best country ever. Defender of human rights. City on a hill. We must do far more than that. So we did.

This story below from Bloomberg, highlights a 236-page report by the U.S. Army Suspension and Debarment Office, which shows that military contracts have been granted to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Yep, this is exactly what happens when an empire gets too big, too corrupt, and ends up in the hands of a bunch of sociopaths. From Bloomberg:

Kurdish Militia: All Syrian Kurds Must Resist Islamist Rebels -- News from Antiwar.com

Kurdish Militia: All Syrian Kurds Must Resist Islamist Rebels -- News from Antiwar.com

Al-Qaeda Unleashed Against Syria and Iraq With Acceptance of the West

Al-Qaeda Unleashed Against Syria and Iraq With Acceptance of the West

Al-Qaeda Unleashed Against Syria and Iraq With Acceptance of the West

By Pepe Escobar

July 26, 2013 "Information Clearing House -   The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – the official denomination of al-Qaeda in Iraq – does not even pretend to be not responsible for the relentless bombing, political assassination and mostly sectarian horror unleashed across Iraq during Ramadan.

But this is exactly what they’re doing, with relish; throwing arrays of crude bombs made with fertilizer enhanced with ball bearings, manipulating a small army of foreign suicide bombers. Most of these, by the way, crossed the desert from Syria.

Narrow Defeat: Amash Amendment to Block NSA Surveillance Fails -- News from Antiwar.com

Narrow Defeat: Amash Amendment to Block NSA Surveillance Fails -- News from Antiwar.com
 The amendment failed, unfortunately, but the 205-217 vote showed that many in the House were willing to buck party leadership in favor of the American public’s demands to see the NSA powers curbed.

On the Death of Helen Thomas

On the Death of Helen Thomas

July 23, 2013 "Information Clearing House - Helen Thomas, the renowned journalist, died on 20 July 2013 at the age of 92. She was the first woman journalist to cover the White House and did so for an unprecedented 50 years. She lasted in that job despite always asking the tough questions. It was a glorious run besmirched only late in her career by opportunistic attacks by Zionist American ideologues. When that happened, as described below, I wrote a piece in her defense. It was originally put online on June 23, 2010, but is here represented in an updated form. 

There Will Never Be Another Helen Thomas » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

There Will Never Be Another Helen Thomas » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

"The Act of Killing": New Film Shows U.S.-Backed Indonesian Death Squad Leaders Re-enacting Massacres

"The Act of Killing": New Film Shows U.S.-Backed Indonesian Death Squad Leaders Re-enacting Massacres

The film is set in Indonesia, where, beginning in 1965, military and paramilitary forces slaughtered up to a million Indonesians after overthrowing the democratically elected government. That military was backed by the United States and led by General Suharto, who would rule Indonesia for decades. 

A Rough Guide to Life in the United States of Zimmermanm, the US of Z

A Rough Guide to Life in the United States of Zimmermanm, the US of Z
In the US of Z the law allows people to hunt each other, and feel no remorse for killing someone.

By William Boardman

July 17, 2013 "Information Clearing House -  The most important thing about the Zimmerman verdict is that it's a clear demonstration of how the American legal system is only about law. It is not about justice. It is not even about the consequences of killing another person.

The verdict demonstrates that, despite the protestations of the law that it is about justice, that's only a pretense to cover the reality: that when the law produces justice, it's a fluke, an accident, a surprise. The law is only about the law.

And it's no wonder, when you stop to think about who makes laws and why. Justice is one of the last things on the legislative mind, if it ever gets there at all.

“Everyone is Corrupt, I’ve Come to Learn”

By Thomas Hedges

July 12, 2013 "Information Clearing House - "Salon"---  John Kiriakou, the former CIA officer who blew the whistle on Bush’s torture program and is now in prison, sent an open letter to Edward Snowden last week warning him not to trust the FBI.

“DO NOT,” Kiriakou wrote, “under any circumstances, cooperate with the FBI. FBI agents will lie, trick, and deceive you. They will twist your words and play on your patriotism to entrap you. They will pretend to be people they are not – supporters, well-wishers, and friends – all the while wearing wires to record your out-of-context statements to use against you. The FBI is the enemy; it’s part of the problem, not the solution.”

PRISM & ‘Purity’: NSA Follows Nazi Tradition

PRISM & ‘Purity’: NSA Follows Nazi Tradition

July 09, 2013 "Information Clearing House - "RT"--- The NSA in America is following in the Nazi tradition in its attempt to discriminate based on data collection, modeled around their belief system - which justifies trashing the Constitution in pursuit of ‘pure’ data.

DNA is data. Thanks to the scientific work of Watson and Crick and their discovery of the double-helix and all its component parts in the DNA strands that make up all living cells, we know that humans are made up of data. To microbiologists and bio-engineers, this information means the development of drugs and treatments for illnesses - leading to more healthy, better lives. 

For Egypt’s Islamists, War Is Now a Legitimate Option

For Egypt’s Islamists, War Is Now a Legitimate Option

Why? Because those who deservedly and miserably lost to the Islamists in 2012 did not care to wait for the next election to try to defeat Morsi. Those in the West who have contended that some Muslims are not capable of democracy have been proven right, although the proof lies in the behavior of those pro-democracy Egyptians the West praises and supports. Egypt’s Islamists, on the other hand, played by the political game’s rules and—if the military’s diktat holds—they have lost and war is now their main option.

Arab Oil Cash to Kill Democracy in Egypt

Arab Oil Cash to Kill Democracy in Egypt

July 11, 2013 "Information Clearing House - In order to determine whether the turmoil in Egypt is in the best interests of the mass of ordinary Egyptians, we should use the trusted maxim - follow the money.

The Dictionary of the Global War on You (GWOY) by Tom Engelhardt -- Antiwar.com

The Dictionary of the Global War on You (GWOY) by Tom Engelhardt -- Antiwar.com

In the months after September 11, 2001, it was regularly said that “everything” had changed. It’s a claim long forgotten, buried in everyday American life. Still, if you think about it, in the decade-plus that followed – the years of the PATRIOT Act, “enhanced interrogation techniques,” “black sites,” robot assassination campaigns,extraordinary renditions, the Abu Ghraib photos, the Global War on Terror, and thefirst cyberwar in history – much did change in ways that should still stun us. Perhaps nothing changed more than the American national security state, which, spurred on by 9/11 and the open congressional purse strings that followed, grew in ways that would have been alien even at the height of the Cold War, when there was another giant, nuclear-armed imperial power on planet Earth........

Tuesday Terror: 86 Iraqis Killed, 234 Wounded -- Antiwar.com

Tuesday Terror: 86 Iraqis Killed, 234 Wounded -- Antiwar.com

Coordinated violence took place across Baghdad today, as bomb after bomb exploded in neighborhoods across the city. The bloodshed extended deep into Shi’ite southern Iraq, which has been relatively quiet compared to restive northern Iraq. Overall, at least 86 Iraqis were killed and 234 were wounded.

Glenn Greenwald: New bombshell coming - Hadas Gold - POLITICO.com

Glenn Greenwald: New bombshell coming - Hadas Gold - POLITICO.com

Spy Chief Clapper ‘Apologizes’ for Lying to Congress -- News from Antiwar.com

Spy Chief Clapper ‘Apologizes’ for Lying to Congress -- News from Antiwar.com

When the NSA surveillance scandal first came to light last month, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was extremely defiant about having been caught lying to Congress, bragging that he gave the “least untruthful” lie he could think of.

Obama: Spying on Europeans ‘Standard Practice’ -- News from Antiwar.com

Obama: Spying on Europeans ‘Standard Practice’ -- News from Antiwar.com

Speaking today from Der es Salaam, President Obama defended the mass surveillanceof European diplomats, saying the practice is “standard” throughout the world and would continue despite complaints.

German Prosecutors May File Charges Over US, British Surveillance -- News from Antiwar.com

German Prosecutors May File Charges Over US, British Surveillance -- News from Antiwar.com

Recent revelations about the NSA’s broad surveillance of German phone and Internet communications have fueled major concerns in the country, as Federal Prosecutors say they are preparing criminal charges against US and British spies involved.

Glenn Greenwald Speaks Out

Glenn Greenwald Speaks Out

Ex-official: CIA Helped Jail Mandela

Ex-official: CIA Helped Jail Mandela

June 29, 2013 "Information Clearing House - "Chicago Tribune" ----- June 10, 1990 - WASHINGTON — For nearly 28 years the U.S. government has harbored an increasingly embarrassing secret: A CIA tip to South African intelligence agents led to the arrest that put black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela in prison for most of his adult life.

Foreign media portrayals of the conflict in Syria are dangerously inaccurate

Foreign media portrayals of the conflict in Syria are dangerously inaccurate

But at the very time I was in the town, Al Jazeera Arabic was reporting fighting there between the Syrian army and the opposition. Smoke was supposedly rising from Tal Kalakh as the rebels fought to defend their stronghold. Fortunately, this appears to have been fantasy and, during the several hours I was in the town, there was no shooting, no sign that fighting had taken place and no smoke.

Of course, all sides in a war pretend that no position is lost without a heroic defence against overwhelming numbers of the enemy. But obscured in the media's accounts of what happened in Tal Kalakh was an important point: the opposition in Syria is fluid in its allegiances. The US, Britain and the so-called 11-member "Friends of Syria", who met in Doha last weekend, are to arm non-Islamic fundamentalist rebels, but there is no great chasm between them and those not linked to al-Qa'ida. One fighter with the al-Qa'ida-affiliated al-Nusra Front was reported to have defected to a more moderate group because he could not do without cigarettes. The fundamentalists pay more and, given the total impoverishment of so many Syrian families, the rebels will always be able .....

US Ospreys and air tankers put Iran in Israel's reach - Middle East - Stripes

US Ospreys and air tankers put Iran in Israel's reach - Middle East - Stripes

The United States plans to give Israel weapons that would enable it to send ground forces against Iranian nuclear facilities that it can't penetrate from the air.

The deal includes air-refueling aircraft, advanced radars for F-15 fighter jets, and up to eight V-22 Ospreys, an aircraft that can land like a helicopter and carry two dozen special operations forces with their gear over long distances at aircraft speeds.

Syrians behead Christians for helping military, as CIA ships in arms - Washington Times

Syrians behead Christians for helping military, as CIA ships in arms - Washington Times

A priest and another Christian were beheaded before a cheering crowd by Syrian insurgents who say they aided and abetted the enemy, President Bashar Assad’s military, foreign media reported.

An undated video that made the Internet rounds on Wednesday showed two unnamed men with tied hands surrounded by a cheering crowd of dozens, just moments before their heads were cut off with a small knife, Syria Report said. The attackers in the video then lifted the head for show, and placed it back on the body. The incident took place in the countryside of Idlib, the media report said.

Read more: http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/27/syrians-behead-christians-helping-military-cia-shi/#comment-946621703#ixzz2XihPlc9i 

Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Yahoo Fought PRISM and Lost, FISA Court Confirms -- News from Antiwar.com

Yahoo Fought PRISM and Lost, FISA Court Confirms -- News from Antiwar.com

The FISA courts have finallydeclassified some minor details of an early 2008 lawsuit brought by Yahoo, which was resisting the demand to join PRISM. A heavily redacted version of the ruling was leaked in 2009, dismissing the complaints as “overblown” and claiming the NSA’s promises not to abuse the system made their opposition moot.

Africans denied right to work in Israel

Africans denied right to work in Israel
“Rather than saying, ‘This is what you need to do,’ they destroyed all food in the restaurant, including what was on people’s plates,” said Ilana Pinshaw, project manager at Tel Aviv-based microfinance group Microfy, which monitored the case and provides training, and small loans to asylum-seekers in Israel looking to start businesses.

Bias against Muslims rampant in “liberal” California

Bias against Muslims rampant in “liberal” California

The Islamic Human Rights Commission reveals that 29.9 percent of all respondents in the state of California had experienced a hate-motivated physical attack, the highest figure found so far.

Not far behind, however, in the designated seat of liberal America, the San Francisco Bay Area of California, 23 percent of respondents reported being victims of a hate crime.

72% Think NSA May Have Monitored Congress, Military Leaders, Judges - Rasmussen Reportsâ„¢

72% Think NSA May Have Monitored Congress, Military Leaders, Judges - Rasmussen Reportsâ„¢
Most voters think the National Security Agency is likely to have violated one of the country’s most cherished constitutional standards – the checks and balances between the three branches of government – by spying on the private communications of Congress and judges.

A Giant Blackmail Machine: NSA Spying: So They Are Listening In, After All

A Giant Blackmail Machine: NSA Spying: So They Are Listening In, After All

A Giant Blackmail Machine

NSA Spying: So They Are Listening In, After All 

By Tom Burghardt

June 24, 2013 "Information Clearing House - Despite a stream of mendacious twaddle from President Obama, congressional grifters and spook agency mouthpieces like Office of the Director of National Intelligence head James Clapper, FBI Director Robert Mueller and NSA chief General Keith Alexander, it turns out our guardians are listening in to America's, and most of the world's, telephone conversations after all.

The Pursuit of Edward Snowden: Washington in a Rage, Striving to Run the World

The Pursuit of Edward Snowden: Washington in a Rage, Striving to Run the World

By Norman Solomon

June 24, 2013 "Information Clearing House -  Rarely has any American provoked such fury in Washington’s high places. So far, Edward Snowden has outsmarted the smartest guys in the echo chamber -- and he has proceeded with the kind of moral clarity that U.S. officials seem to find unfathomable.

Cheney: I Helped Set Up Secret NSA Spy Program

Cheney: I Helped Set Up Secret NSA Spy Program

Groundhog Day in Afghanistan: US Turns Up 12 Years Late For Talks With The Taliban

Groundhog Day in Afghanistan: US Turns Up 12 Years Late For Talks With The Taliban

Karzai is bitter because, with the US losing in Afghanistan, its withdrawal will probably lead to the demise of any government led by him, and perhaps to a resumption of the civil war, in which it intervened to back one side 12 years ago. He has now suspended talks on a long term security deal with the US for when the troops supposedly quit the country in 2014. This is harmful to the US which is already planning to maintain a considerable military presence with many bases in the country.

Hezbollah’s Palestinian Problem

Hezbollah’s Palestinian Problem

Hezbollah’s Palestinian Problem

By Franklin Lamb

June 22, 2013 "Information Clearing House -  Many Lebanese and Syrian supporters of this regions Resistance culture, increasingly led by Hezbollah, are chastising, for a number of reasons, their former Islamist ally Hamas. Pillorying them with accusations that the latter are ingrates who are creating a host of problems for Hezbollah and its support for the Syrian regime, during the continuing crisis. Unnecessary problems, it is frequently asserted, that inure to the benefit of their mutual arch enemies, the Zionist colonizers of Palestine and their American and Arab enablers.

No Proof Who Used Chemical Weapons In Syria: UN

No Proof Who Used Chemical Weapons In Syria: UN

"We are not able to say who has used chemical agents or chemical weapons and we are very much worried about the chain of custody of the substances," Pinheiro told reporters after an informal meeting with UN Security Council ambassadors.

S Africa migrants battle rising persecution - Features - Al Jazeera English

S Africa migrants battle rising persecution - Features - Al Jazeera English

Suicide Bomb Hits Pakistani Shi’ite Mosque, Killing 15 -- News from Antiwar.com

Suicide Bomb Hits Pakistani Shi’ite Mosque, Killing 15 -- News from Antiwar.com

Pepe Escobar : Brazil burning: The Story of an Illusion Gone Sour

Pepe Escobar : Brazil burning: The Story of an Illusion Gone Sour

Yet this breakneck capitalist dream masked serious cracks. Locally there may be euphoria for becoming the sixth or seventh world economy, but still social exclusion was far from gone. Brazil remained one the most (deadly) unequal nations in the world, peppered with retrograde landowning oligarchies and some of the most rapacious, arrogant and ignorant elites on the planet – inevitable by-products of ghastly Portuguese colonialism.

Inside Guantánamo’s Force-Feeding Quagmire

Inside Guantánamo’s Force-Feeding Quagmire

Noam Chomsky: Obama Is ‘Running Biggest Terrorist Operation That Exists’

Noam Chomsky: Obama Is ‘Running Biggest Terrorist Operation That Exists’

A Tale of Two Presidents: The One We Voted For – and Obama:

A Tale of Two Presidents: The One We Voted For – and Obama:

The deep-thinking moralist that we were told was in the White House might look at this and worry that in fighting terrorism we have resorted to engaging in terrorism. After all, deliberately killing people without regard for their identity seems like an effort to terrorize a whole population. Indeed, as this week’s stunning new video series by documentarian Robert Greenwald illustrates, such violence seems eerily similar to the kind of terrorism that our government publicly decries.

The Lies of Empire: Don’t Believe a Word They Say

The Lies of Empire: Don’t Believe a Word They Say

June 21, 2013 "Information Clearing House -   The U.S. reprises Iraq, inventing a WMD threat from Syria. The FBI concocts home-grown terror through stings, while the NSA claims it has secretly saved many lives. “Why this steady stream of government-invented terror, if the real thing is so abundant?” And, isn’t the U.S. arming and funding the same jihadists they are supposed to be listening for on our telephones?

Israel refuses to investigate torture of 16-year-old

Israel refuses to investigate torture of 16-year-old

Israel has refused to investigate the brutal ill-treatment of a Palestinian child, a human rights group has stated.

On 6 February 2010, Mohammad Halabiyeh, then aged 16, broke his leg during his arrest by the Israeli border police. Mohammad — who hails from Abu Dis, near Jerusalem — needed urgent medical treatment. Yet the police interrogated and tortured him for five days by beating him, kicking him on his injured leg and threatening him with sexual abuse.

US Taxpayers Pay for Apartheid Israel Regime

US Taxpayers Pay for Apartheid Israel Regime

The US government in 2013 will give Israel over USD 3.15 billion, an increase over the billions it gave Israel last year. Yet the US doesn’t ever seem to have any problem determining where that money comes from: the US taxpayer has for decades been funding the apartheid Israeli regime. 

Nine Reasons You Should Care About NSA’s PRISM Surveillance

Nine Reasons You Should Care About NSA’s PRISM Surveillance

Fighting Terrorism by Arming Terrorists

Fighting Terrorism by Arming Terrorists

By one estimate, seven of nine key rebel combatant groups are Islamist. “As the civil war has dragged on, the rebels have become more Islamist and extreme,” the Economist reports. Thus the administration’s decision to arm only the non-Islamist rebels may soon resemble O.J. Simpson’s search for the “real killers.”

Jonathan Manthorpe: Saudi Arabia Funding Fuels Jihadist Terror

Jonathan Manthorpe: Saudi Arabia Funding Fuels Jihadist Terror

It belongs to Saudi Arabia.

Over more than two decades, Saudi Arabia has lavished around $100 billion or more on the worldwide promotion of the violent, intolerant and crudely puritanical Wahhabist sect of Islam that the ruling royal family espouses.

The links of the Boston bombers and the London butchers to organizations following the Saudi royal family’s religious line are clear.

One of the two London butchers, Nigerian-born Michael Adebolajo, was radicalized by the cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, who headed the outlawed terrorist group Al-Muhajiroun.

The group follows Wahhabist teachings and advocates unifying all Muslims, forcibly if necessary, under a single fundamentalist theocratic government.

The crocodile tears of Samantha Power

The crocodile tears of Samantha Power

Back in 2002, Power apparently upset those sensitive souls in the Zionist lobby when she dared to suggest that the US should impose a “solution” in Palestine. It was an offensive remark as it inferred that America wanted peace, when it had provided Israel with many of the arms being used to butcher Palestinians. But that wasn’t why the lobby got offended: it felt that she had committed the mortal sin of criticizing Israel.

Writing in The Huffington Post, Shmuley Boteach — apparently the “most famous rabbi in America” — recently bragged of how he convinced the Zionist lobby to trust Power. Boteach arranged for Power to meet 40 top lobbyists. During the encounter, “tears streamed down her cheeks,” he wrote, as Power insisted that her comments had been misconstrued.

Article: another terrorism news.

Iraq’s Shi’ite South Targeted: 54 Killed, 174 Wounded -- Antiwar.com

A surge in attacks that began last month resumed after several days of relatively light violence. Shi’ites were targeted in today’s hostilities. Because several of the bombings occurred in southern cities unaccustomed to daily or even weekly attacks, the violence was likely coordinated. Overall, at least 54 Iraqis were killed and 174 more were wounded.

Putin: Lets Not Arm Those Organ-Eating Syrian Rebels -- News from Antiwar.com

Putin: Lets Not Arm Those Organ-Eating Syrian Rebels -- News from Antiwar.com

Eating the hearts of your enemies isn’t just unsanitary and a gross violation of Muslim dietary laws, but also a pretty clear indication that a person is a little too into the mass murder aspect of the civil war.

Which has President Vladimir Putin openly warning against arming these sorts of rebels in the latest US-led push to start funneling weapons into the country, admonishing EU officials for supporting rebelswho spurn the “humanitarian values” of Europe.

Al-Qaeda-Backed Rebels Blow Up Mosque in Eastern Syria -- News from Antiwar.com

Al-Qaeda-Backed Rebels Blow Up Mosque in Eastern Syria -- News from Antiwar.com

Attacking the Shi’ite neighborhoods in the village of Hatla last week, Syrian rebelskilled at least 60 people, chased a lot of others out of town, and burned a whole neighborhood of homes down for being Shi’ites.

Terrorism. Muslim extremist's vision for the world.

'Dozens dead' in Aleppo car bomb attack - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35276.htm

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35276.htm

June 14, 2013 "Information Clearing House - "RT" ---- After concluding that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against the country's insurgency, thus crossing a ‘red line,’ the Obama administration has decided to start sending arms to anti-Assad rebels for the first time since, officials say.

Ron Paul Warns US Government May Assassinate NSA Leaker Snowden

Ron Paul Warns US Government May Assassinate NSA Leaker Snowden

“I’m worried about somebody in our government might kill him with a cruise missile or a drone missile,” Paul said on the Fox Business Network. “I mean, we live in a bad time where American citizens don’t even have rights, and that they can be killed, but the gentlemen is trying to tell the truth about what’s going on.”

Western Emperors Have No Clothes

Western Emperors Have No Clothes

June 12, 2013 "Information Clearing House  - The military victory for Syria’s government forces in the strategic central town of Qusayr last week was a watershed event for several reasons. But of the crucial turning points heralded by this event, one is inimitably clear - the Western powers, the would-be emperors of Syria, stand naked in their failed criminal conspiracy to destroy that country.

Ron Paul: ‘Thankful’ for Edward Snowden - Breanna Edwards - POLITICO.com

Ron Paul: ‘Thankful’ for Edward Snowden - Breanna Edwards - POLITICO.com

America's Outsourced Spy Force, by the Numbers - Philip Bump - The Atlantic Wire

America's Outsourced Spy Force, by the Numbers - Philip Bump - The Atlantic Wire

Egypt warns Ethiopia over Nile dam - Africa - Al Jazeera English

Egypt warns Ethiopia over Nile dam - Africa - Al Jazeera English

"We are not calling for war, but we will not allow, at all, threats against our water security," Morsi said before adding, "all options are open."

The Palestinian struggle is a black struggle

The Palestinian struggle is a black struggle

One of the pillars of my trip to Gaza with the Palestine Literature Festival turned out to be an ongoing discussion regarding the essential blackness of the Palestinian struggle and the need to form greater ties with our “natural allies” from Africa and South America in particular.

NSA Taps In To User Data of Facebook, Google and Others, Secret Files Reveal

NSA Taps In To User Data of Facebook, Google and Others, Secret Files Reveal

It boasts of what it calls "strong growth" in its use of the PRISM program to obtain communications. The document highlights the number of obtained communications increased in 2012 by 248% for Skype – leading the notes to remark there was "exponential growth in Skype reporting; looks like the word is getting out about our capability against Skype". There was also a 131% increase in requests for Facebook data, and 63% for Google.

NATO Data: Assad Winning the War for Syrians’ Hearts and Minds

NATO Data: Assad Winning the War for Syrians’ Hearts and Minds

The data, relayed to NATO over the last month, asserted that 70 percent of Syrians support the Assad regime. Another 20 percent were deemed neutral and the remaining 10 percent expressed support for the rebels.

Bradley Manning's Legal Duty to Expose War Crimes

Bradley Manning's Legal Duty to Expose War Crimes

A legal duty to report war crimes

Manning is charged with crimes for sending hundreds of thousands of classified files, documents and videos, including the "Collateral Murder" video, the "Iraq War Logs," the "Afghan War Logs" and State Department cables to Wikileaks. Many of the things he transmitted contain evidence of war crimes. 

The "Collateral Murder" video depicts a US Apache attack helicopter killing 12 civilians and wounding two children on the ground in Baghdad in 2007. The helicopter then fired on and killed the people trying to rescue the wounded. Finally, a US tank drove over one of the bodies, cutting the man in half. These acts constitute three separate war crimes.

Bradley Manning Trial Day 2 « Antiwar.com Blog

Bradley Manning Trial Day 2 « Antiwar.com Blog

Most interestingly — though not surprising — it appears the government will spend the next 12 weeks trying to convince the jury that not only was Manning fully cognizant that his actions would “aid the enemy” — the “enemy” being al Qaeda — but that he conspired with Julian Assange and WikiLeaks to do it.The leitmotif in this ongoing tragedy is that the government is looking for a way to finally prosecute Assange, who is living under Ecuadoran asylum in that country’s embassy in London. WikiLeaks in currently under investigation by the U.S Justice Department. Many believe the government is trying to prove that Assange helped Manning obtain, store and release the documents, which would make him a co-conspirator rather than merely the recipient of more than 700,000 classified U.S documents. Manning has adamantly denied this co-conspiracy scenario, but has admitted handing the files to WikiLeaks after being turned down by major American newspapers. WikiLeaks has neither confirmed nor denied it got the documents from Manning

Afghan Protesters Demand US Arrest Troops Over Torture, Killings -- News from Antiwar.com

Afghan Protesters Demand US Arrest Troops Over Torture, Killings -- News from Antiwar.com

Afghan protesters turned out in force in the Wardak Province today, carrying thefreshly exhumed bodies of three more victims of the special forces torture scandal that has been rocking the Nirkh District, where villages say US troops routinely raided them and disappeared civilians.

Mass Palestinian grave found in Tel Aviv - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Mass Palestinian grave found in Tel Aviv - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

If the Syrian Dictator Must Go… Why Not the Dictators in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain?

If the Syrian Dictator Must Go… Why Not the Dictators in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain?

How We Lost The Syrian Revolution

How We Lost The Syrian Revolution
Rebels would systematically loot the neighborhoods they entered. They had very little regard for the lives and property of the people, and would even kidnap for ransom and execute anyone they pleased with little recourse to any form of judicial process. They would deliberately vandalize and destroy ancient and historical landmarks and icons of the city. They would strip factories and industrial zones bare, even down to the electrical wiring, hauling their loot of expensive industrial machinery and infrastructure off across the border to Turkey to be sold at a fraction of its price. Shopping malls were emptied, warehouses, too. They stole the grain in storage silos, creating a crisis and a sharp rise in staple food costs. They would incessantly shell residential civilian neighborhoods under regime control with mortars, rocket fire and car bombs, causing death and injury to countless innocent people, their snipers routinely killing in cold blood unsuspecting passersby. As a consequence, tens of thousands became destitute and homeless in this once bustling, thriving and rich commercial metropolis.

Syrian Rebel Alliance Openly Threatens Ethnic Cleansing

Syrian Rebel Alliance Openly Threatens Ethnic Cleansing

Syrian Rebel Alliance Openly Threatens Ethnic Cleansing

By Alex Newman

May 30, 2013 "Information Clearing House" -  A spokesman for the primary rebel alliance in Syria, known as the “Free Syrian Army,” threatened that opposition forces could start implementing a broad ethnic-cleansing program aimed at Shia Muslims and especially the Islamic Alawite sect to which dictator Bashar al-Assad belongs. As Obama administration-led Western powers and a coalition of Sunni Arab dictators continue to fuel the increasingly ruthless conflict, the rebel FSA spokesperson said in a TV interview that minority communities would be “wiped off the map” if the regime’s forces managed to capture the city of Al-Qusair.

The genocide announcement came shortly after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blasted his Senate Foreign Relations Committee colleagues for voting to arm the rebels, many of whom openly fight under the banner of al-Qaeda. “This is an important moment,” Sen. Paul said about the vote. “You will be funding, today, the allies of al Qaeda.” While the U.S. government has been supporting the opposition since before open warfare began, Obama has ramped up that support to unprecedented levels. And now, a Senate committee has expressed its backing for arming groups that openly threaten to exterminate minorities.

According to a report in Bloomberg, rebel Free Syrian Army “Colonel” Abdel-Hamid Zakaria made the threat to exterminate minority-denomination Muslims in Syria during an interview from Turkey last week with Al-Arabiya television. “We don’t want this to happen, but it will be a reality imposed on everyone,” Zakaria said during the interview, referring to his alliance wiping certain minority communities off the map if regime forces succeeded in taking Al-Qusair. “It’s going to be an open, sectarian, bloody war to the end.”

Mubarak-era cruelty continues at Rafah crossing

Mubarak-era cruelty continues at Rafah crossing
Since 2006 — when Hamas unexpectedly won Palestinian parliamentary elections — the situation at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt has been a source of extraordinary confusion.

'Obama Must be Taken Before ICC for the War on Terror' - Noam Chomsky

'Obama Must be Taken Before ICC for the War on Terror' - Noam Chomsky

May 23, 2013 "Information Clearing House" -"RT" - The US war on terror is in fact the most massive terror campaign ever, and the invasion of Iraq was the worst crime in recent history, prominent liberal thinker Noam Chomsky told RT, adding that he wants to see Bush, Blair and Obama tried at the ICC.

Killing Americans: Jeremy Scahill on Obama Admin's Admission 4 U.S. Citizens Died in Drone Strikes

Killing Americans: Jeremy Scahill on Obama Admin's Admission 4 U.S. Citizens Died in Drone Strikes

The Obama administration has admitted for the first time to killing four U.S. citizens in drone strikes overseas. Three died in Yemen: the Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, his 16-year-old son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. A fourth, Jude Kenan Mohammed -- whose death was not previously reported -- was killed in Pakistan. 

In a letter to Congress, Attorney General Eric Holder suggested that all but the attack on the elder al-Awlaki were accidental, saying the other three "were not specifically targeted." The admission came on the eve of a major address in which President Obama is expected to defend the secret targeted killing program and announce modified guidelines for carrying it out. We're joined by Jeremy Scahill, author of the new book, "Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield," and co-producer of the upcoming documentary film by the same name.

http://youtu.be/iB-UMXtg_WI

Gangster State America

Gangster State America

May 14, 2013 "Information Clearing House" -  There are many signs of gangster state America. One is the collusion between federal authorities and banksters in a criminal conspiracy to rig the markets for gold and silver.

My explanation that the sudden appearance of an unprecedented 400 ton short sale of gold on the COMEX in April was a manipulation designed to protect the dollar from the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing policy has found acceptance among gold investors and hedge fund managers. 

The sale was a naked short. The seller had no gold to sell. COMEX reported having gold only equal to about half of the short sale in its vaults, and not all of that was available for delivery. 

Life "no longer bearable" in Syria, says Palestinian refugee

Life "no longer bearable" in Syria, says Palestinian refugee

One of the most distressing scenes that Redwan Amayra witnessed in Syria was of a woman being shot as she carried some bread. After warplanes hit Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus, last November, Amayra decided to flee.

A 60-year-old teacher employed with the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), Amayra had just registered with the Palestinian Authority’s embassy in Cairo. It is not the first time that his family has been uprooted: they were forced to leave Safed, a town in the Galilee region of historic Palestine, when it was attacked by Zionist forces in 1948.

Ríos Montt Guilty of Genocide: Are Guatemalan President Pérez Molina, U.S. Officials Next?

Ríos Montt Guilty of Genocide: Are Guatemalan President Pérez Molina, U.S. Officials Next?

Ríos Montt Guilty of Genocide: Are Guatemalan President Pérez Molina, U.S. Officials Next?

By Democracy Now! - Video and Transcript

May 13, 2013 "Information Clearing House" -"Democracy Now!" - In a historic verdict, former U.S.-backed Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt has been sentenced to 80 years in prison after being found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. Ríos Montt was convicted of overseeing the slaughter of more than 1,700 people in Guatemala’s Ixil region after seizing power in 1982. The ruling marks the first time a former head of state had been found guilty of genocide in his own country. .....

Syrian Rebel Commander Cuts Organs Out of Assad Soldier’s Body and Eats Them « Antiwar.com Blog

Syrian Rebel Commander Cuts Organs Out of Assad Soldier’s Body and Eats Them « Antiwar.com Blog

Aryn Baker at TIME reports on a video out of Syria depicting the savagery of rebel commander Khalid al-Hamad:

The video starts out like so many of the dozens coming out of the war in Syria every day, with the camera hovering over the body of a dead Syrian soldier. But the next frame makes it clear why this video, smuggled out of the city of Homs and into Lebanon with a rebel fighter, and obtained by TIME in April, is particularly shocking. In the video a man who is believed to be a rebel commander named Khalid al-Hamad, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, bends .......