2011/02/26

The USA's Veto of Shame!!

OUR USA does NOT stand for international law, and Washington does NOT follow an ethical foreign policy: In vetoing the UNSC resolution condemning the Israeli settlements, "our" USA takes the dark side in an act of crass stupidity bu "our" State Department! Apparently, the United States does not follow an ethical foreign policy, the Obama administration's pledge to produce "change" has, to all intents and purposes been assimilated by the Clinton/AIPAC axis. In vetoing the UNSC resolution condemning the Israeli settlements, our USA has taken the "dark side" - a black day for the rule of law, and an act of crass stupidity by our State Department. Shortly after taking office, Barack Obama stated in Cairo: "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop." On Friday, our United States of America vetoed the Arab-sponsored draft resolution in the United Nations Security Council condemning the Israeli settlements in the illegally-held West Bank, territory seized and held by Israel against International Law in defiance of countless UN Resolutions. This veto is a disaster for the State Department, and defies the notion that Hillary Clinton is a resourceful and intelligent person, rather underlining the premise that she is a hostage of AIPAC!

Is US Pushing for Civil War in Libya to Justify Military Intervention??

Is Tripoli being "set up" for a civil war to justify US and NATO military intervention? There is no question that Colonel Muammar Al-Gaddafi is a dictator, as he has been for about 42 years. Yet, it appears that tensions are being ratcheted up, and the flames of revolt are being fanned inside Libya: These include earlier statements by the British Foreign Secretary William Hague, that Colonel Qaddafi had fled Libya to Venezuela. This statement served to electrify the revolt against Qaddafi and his regime in Libya. Although all three have dictatorship in common, Qaddafi's Libya is quite different from Ben Ali's in Tunesia or Mubarak's in Egypt. The Libyan leadership is NOT outright subservient to the United States and the European Union. Unlike the cases of Tunisia and Egypt, the relationship that exists between Qaddafi and both the US and the EU is a modus vivendi. Simply put, Qaddafi is an independent Arab dictator, and NOT a managed dictator like Ben Ali and Mubarak. In Tunisia and Egypt, the status quo prevails, the military machine and neo- liberalism remain intact; In Libya, however, upsetting the established order is a US and EU objective!

2011/02/25

Qaddafi, Bush and the Big Lie About our Invasion of Iraq!!

Though "OUR" US Government expresses outrage over the brutality of Colonel el-Qadafi toward his own people, we cover up our own guilt about our invasion of Iraq: In May, 2009, a man named Ibn Shaikh al-Libi "supposedly" committed suicide in a Libyan jail. Back in 2002, he was tortured by Egypt under US (read CIA) direction. It "appears" that the reason we had him tortured was NOT to stop some imminent attack on our United States, but to generate false links between Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein that could justify our invasion of Iraq. It gets worse: Al-Libi was captured and sent to Egypt, where under severe torture, including waterboarding, he "confessed" to false information about purported Saddam-911 links. Al-Libi later explained that he confessed only to end his severe torture by our "wonderful government". His false confession ended his torture experience. "They were killing me", Al-Libi later told the FBI about his ordeal: "I had to tell them something." A bipartisan Senate Intelligence committee report would later conclude that al-Libi had lied about the link merely to stop his intense torture. He "suddenly" killed himself while being held in Qaddafi's police state, thus ending our own culpability for his unfortunate demise. And I thought only the "evildoers" in our world still do that sort of thing. Anyway, that's what I thought when I fought for our country while defending her honor in Vietnam. If we do not pay attention to these "little" things, all of us will be culpable!

Peter Dale Scott: War, Martial Law, and the Economic Crisis!

The bailout measures from 2008 may have consequences at least as grave for an open society as the response to 9/11 in 2001. Many members of Congress felt coerced at the time into voting against their inclinations, and the "normal procedures" were then dispensed with. The excuse for bypassing normal legislative procedures was the existence of an emergency, but one of the most reprehensible features of the legislation, that allowed Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to permit bailed-out institutions to use public money for exorbitant salaries and bonuses, was inserted by Paulson after the immediate crisis had passed. According to Congressman Peter Welch (D- Vermont) the bill originally called for a cap on executive salaries, but Paulson changed the requirement at the last minute. Welch and other members of Congress were enraged by "news that banks getting taxpayer-funded bailouts are still paying exorbitant salaries, bonuses, and other benefits." In addition, as the Associated Press reported in October 2008, "Sen.Charles Schumer, D-N.Y . questioned allowing banks that accept bailout money to continue paying dividends on their common stock. There are far better uses of taxpayer dollars than continuing dividend payments to shareholders, he said!

2011/02/24

AfghanYouth Peace Volunteers: We want dignified livelihoods!

From Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers: Aren't any of you curious whether there are any 'stirrings of Middle East Change' in Afghanistan? Are Afghans supposedly so 'animal-like' that they are not capable of protesting for their bread and butter? Or is the world poised, in silent complicity, to shoot Afghan protesters even before they take to the street? Why are there no Afghan blips in the mainstream news? No one notices the Afghans, even when 103 of their protesters burn themselves in desperation, until all of them are dead! Such as sad oversight by the general public and main- stream media of our world must lead to a tragic despair! Obama is the War Commander-in-Chief who identifies War as a Way to Peace! If you can, come to Afghanistan, face ANY Afghan mother, and tell her that this is YOUR justice, which merely means your final verdict! Right now, we are convinced that those in power believe that killing Afghans brings peace.
(As one of the main founders of Soldiers and Veterans for Justice, I fully concur!)

Who Sponsors Terror? by Stanislav Mishin

With the upcoming collapse of one MidEast regime after another, the neocons are working hard, frothing at the mouth, to drive their base into another anti-Russian delirium: In the so-called American Thinker, James Simpson suggests that if Egypt should fall, it will mark the beginning of the end for what little remaining stability there is in the Middle East. In response, Stanislav Mishin counters: It has been my long-standing assertion that Muslim terrorism is simply a "false flag" operation, managed in the background by our main enemies, Russia and Red China. Almost since the beginning, Muslim terrorist organizations have been supported and nurtured by the Soviet Union or its Middle Eastern surrogates. This time Stanislav Mishin is wrong: The horrors of the collapse of the Trade Center Towers during 911, were not due to Arabs, but the fact that the Jew Silverstein wanted to avoid paying for the renovation of his Asbestos permeated towers out of his own pocket. But I digress: Who placed Saddam into power, and supported him, even though he sponsored terror? Why yes, Reagan and Bush, as long as it was no longer worth their efforts! Please read the Pravda version by clicking on my headline, then look up the "American Thinker" rebuttal at
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/02/we_are_witnessing_the_collapse_1.html

Mustapha Abdeljalil: Like Hitler, Gadafi will Commit Suicide

"Gaddafi's time is up: He is going to go like Hitler, he is going to commit suicide, according to the Mustapha Abdeljalil's comments in Stockholm-based Expressen newspaper on Wednesday. As most of my former countrymen know, Adolf Hitler committed suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot in his Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945, too late to save Germany from utter destruction. Mustapha added that he expects Gaddafi to remain in power despite expanding pro-democracy protests against his repressive four-decade rule. Abdeljalil tendered his resignation on Monday to protest the excessive use of force against Gadaffi's excessive use of force against Libyan protesters. Meanwhile. Libyan demonstrators have taken over control of major oil terminals in the northern port cities of Ras Lanuf and Masra El Brega as protests gain momentum across the North African country. Several eastern cities have now fallen into the hands of the protesters. Libyan security forces have reportedly killed some 1,000 people during recent pro-democracy demonstrations against the authoritarian reign of 68-year-old Gaddafi, who's regime is is facing mounting international condemnations over its brutal crackdown. Meanwhile, Muhammad al-Senussi, who would be Libya's crown prince if the country still had a monarchy, has spoken out about the ongoing violence in his country from London. In his interview with Al Jazeera's Barnaby Phllips, al-Senussi asks the international community to help remove Gaddafi from power to stop the ongoing "massacre".

2011/02/23

Faith in Freedom, NOT in Government: REAL NEWS and Views!

Last week, President Obama released his budget proposal for the federal government. It was expected that the President, based on his State of the Union Address, would outline the need for real cuts that had to be made in order to get our spending under control, and yet, faced with the greatest debt crisis the nation has ever seen, what did our Chief Executive do? Not much. He invented a war surge continuation plan that didn't exist, and claimed to save billions by ending it, and then continued with his ambitious spending agenda. Reckless spending is not just a Democrat problem, though. Many Republicans in the House are still afraid to make serious spending cuts, and no one has forgotten that the last time Republicans were in power, they were anything but frugal. So how much financial trouble are we in? If President Obama's budget were adopted, for the first time in history, our national debt would exceed our entire Gross Domestic Product. Since the President signed his so-called "stimulus" package two years ago, the share of the public debt has gone up to $29,660 per household, bringing the total share of the debt per household to $125,475. That is, over those same two years, the debt has increased $3.34 trillion, bringing the total debt to a breathtaking $14.13 trillion! Yet, given these frightening facts, the President in his budget is simply proposing more of the same. The Federal Government has been spending your money as though it were Monopoly money, and now you are stuck with the bill. More than that, the speed at which we're accumulating debt has nearly tripled in just four years. All of these numbers in "billions" and "trillions" can be hard to visualize, but if you click on the YouTube "National Debt Road Trip", you will understand just how dire our situation is.

History Repeats Itself: Read about the German Peasant Wars!

History, as I mentioned in my title, does Indeed Repeat Itself: The German Peasant War - Bauernkrieg in German, began in 1524, in Southern Germany, Thueringen, Austria and Switzerland. In Schwaben, Saxony and Tirol, these attempts to fight for human rights were ruthlessly suppressed, but they were the harbingers of freedom in Hungary, England, and Switzerland. The most noteworthy information about these wars for freedom was their documentation by Historian Wilhelm Zimmermann, (1524-26) in his book on the history of these World-changing events. He documents the fact that these uprisings were not limited to the German peasants. The Aristocrats in these countries were not at all interested in the well-being of their citizens, like our rulers today. Thus, in our times, the uprising that began in Wisconsin is beginning to spread in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio. Perhaps because of the unwillingness of Governor Scott Walker to negotiate, despite a ton of concessions, including using up more of workers' wages for pension costs and upping their health insurance payments. According to the New York Times, his true priority is stripping workers of collective-bargaining rights and reducing their unions to a shell. The unions would no longer be able to raise money to oppose him, as they did in last year's election, easing the way for future Republicans as well. The game is up, when unionized state workers demonstrate a sense of shared sacrifice, but Republican lawmakers won't even allow them a seat at the table. For unions and Democrats in the Midwest, this is an existential struggle, and it is one worth waging.

2011/02/22

Whom are Our "Free Newspapers" Really Working For????

When I served as "Intelligence Operations Officer" of our 4th US Armored Division in Goeppingen, Germany, and later, when I served as "Advisory Team Leader" in Vietnam, I always thought of our country as the "good guys", and our adversaries as "evil doers". Now, I am not so certain about my judgment: Bill Keller, an editor of the New York Times has recently published an article titled: "Dealing With Assange and the WikiLeaks Secrets." In that article, the author wrote how the newspaper was working with secret cables. From the details of that article, it almost seems as though Russia, and NOT our United States is now the Real Stronghold of freedom of speech. Keller wrote: "Because of the range of the material and the very nature of diplomacy, the embassy cables were bound to be more explosive than the War Logs. Dean Baquet, our Washington bureau chief, gave the White House an early warning on Nov.19. The following Tuesday, two days before Thanksgiving, Baquet and two other colleagues were invited to a windowless room at the State Department, where they encountered an unsmiling crowd. Representatives from the White House, the State Department, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the FBI, and the Pentagon gathered around a conference table. Others, who never identified themselves, lined the walls. A solitary note-taker tapped away on a computer."
Please click on my headline to read the rest of this story about whom our "free newspapers" are working for!

Why does Trump Want to Be President???

Donald Trump as our President? You, or more likely, he has got to be kidding!!In my case, I would respond to that idiot with a resounding: "No f'kn way!" The "Donald" rose to stardom as a front man for some unsavory behind-the-scenes sponsors: In his memoir, Trump proudly described how in 1987 he bought his first casino interests when he purchased 93 percent of the voting stock in the Resorts International (RI) gambling concern. It's NOT that I'm against gambling: Heck, I did that every time I led my Advisory Team into the jungle, to hunt the elusive Vietcong! What Trump didn't say was that RI was controlled by a clique of sordid, international big-money elements in alliance with the Jewish crime syndicate, which was, in turn, collaborating with the CIA and Israel's Mossad in an array of inter-connected money-laundering operations. The casinos laundered money for the CIA and the Mossad. In return, these agencies used their influence to ensure the mob remained protected from interference by law enforcement. To understand where Trump fits in, we turn to RI's murky origins. RI evolved from a CIA front-the Mary Carter Paint Company-set up in the 1950's by then-CIA director Allen Dulles and his close associate, New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, a leader of the "Rockefeller wing" of the GOP. While the company did in fact operate a national paint store chain, its real purpose was to function as a covert CIA money-laundering operation.

2011/02/21

Yuri Sosinsky-Semikhat: Why the Strange Manoeuvres of the Israeli Army?

Recent military activity of the Israeli army north of their country, and in Gaza suggests that the Israeli generals are still haunted by the ghost of the Intifada and the Second Lebanon War. The growing power of the radical Lebanese Shiite movement "Hezbollah" threatens not only northern Israel, but its central part as well, leading to the question of possible fear by the Israeli generals. The most recent incident took place on August 3, 2010, when the Lebanese army opened fire at the Israeli military which tried to cut a tree in disputed territory. Though there have been multiple flights of Israeli aircraft in the skies over Lebanon, these disturbances merely involve the containment policies of Benjamin Netanyahu. Multiple flights of Israeli aircraft in the skies over Lebanon are a completely different matter. Of course, the IDF also conducts local operations in the Gaza Strip, where the IDF spends millions of dollars on their patrols with fighters and bombers, though this does not seem to have an impact on the Palestinian missiles which always respond in kind. Though the situation in Lebanon is complicated, no political crisis has yet erupted from this activity.

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei Urges Muslims not to let Arrogant Powers Hiijack Popular Movements!

The elite's guidance is needed to assist the people of nations to prevent the arrogant apparatus from hijacking the popular movements of the Muslim world. IRNA quoted the Leader as saying that the recent revolutions in Muslim countries resulted from a prolonged humiliation by arrogant powers. "The responsibility of political, scientific and academic elites and religious scholars in face of the recent developments is very heavy." Criticizing US propaganda and efforts in the region to acquit itself of its role in supporting the regions dictators, the Leader said, "The recent popular movements are primarily against the dominance of arrogant powers." He went on to say that the dominant powers' plots against Islamic countries have created discord among Muslim nations, calling on the Muslim nations and governments to become vigilant and stop the "great Satan" (the US) from interfering in their destinies. "If governments become united with their peoples, no power can take control of their nations."

Obama's "Budget" includes $3 Billion in Military Aid to Israel!!

In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama pledged to "go through the budget line by line to eliminate programs that we can't afford and don't work". One week later, he sent his FY2011 budget request to Congress, which includes a record-breaking $3 billion in military aid to Israel. This requested increase in US weapons to Israel - part of a ten-year $30 billion agreement signed between the two countries in 2007 - qualifies on both counts as a program that the United States can't afford, and that doesn't work in establishing a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Data published recently by the "US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation" shows that US military aid to Israel could be used instead to provide more than 364,000 low-income households with affordable housing vouchers, or to retain 498,000 workers for green jobs, or to provide early reading programs to 887,000 at-risk students, or to provide access to primary health care services for more than 24 million uninsured Americans, including the families of our veterans returning from Obama's wars. During the Bush Administration, Israel killed at least 3,107 innocent Palestinian civilians, according to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem. Israel also injured thousands more innocent Palestinians and destroyed billions of dollars of Palestinian civilian infrastructure, including homes, schools, factories, government buildings, and even Palestine's only airport. The severity and scale of this killing and destruction were made possible by hi-tech US weapons provided to Israel at taxpayer expense.

The Undefeated: This Is Our Land, and You're ON It!!!

"Support Our Troops" is an unconditional American Mantra, which many of you have seen proudly displayed on the bumper stickers on cars in parking lots, and on cars passing you on your war to work, if you still have a job. Those of us who served in America's misguided wars, as I did in Vietnam, find these "support stickers" merely disgusting. In Vietnam, I saw a Chinese Adviser, as I was on "our" side, killed by the "enemy" he was advising, up close and personal, at a range close enough to see him take his last breath. In Trung Lap, at the edge of the so-called "Iron Triangle" near Saigon, I ordered my counterpart in the Vietnamese government's army to return the mortar fire that was plunging into my Advisor compound. Only one hour later, as I was preparing to lead my team into another hazardous mission, I saw an old woman, and a very old young man, hobbling through the village gate of Trung Lap. The woman was carrying a tiny baby boy. When she approached me with downcast eyes, I saw that she had tied a dinner plate around the boy's abdomen, to keep his shredded intestines from falling out. Though I immediately called for helicopter evacuation, I realized that I was merely attempting to assuage my own deeply felt guilt, since I was totally responsible for his imminent death. With that background behind me, I do not have the temerity to lecture others for their misdeeds, since I am still wrestling with my own.

2011/02/20

Cutting our Federal Budget? What About Afghanistan??

Here is the unadulterated truth about our Afghanistan adventure: There is a perfectly obvious path toward toward the Republican goal of $100 billion! If we were to embark on it, there could be even more cuts to follow and they wouldn't be all that painful, provided we change our thinking about making war. After all, according to the Pentagon, the cost of the Afghan War in 2012 will be almost $300 million a day, or $107.3 billion for the entire year! Like anything having to do with America's wars, it is almost certain that these figures will turn out to be EXTREME undercounts, since other estimates go as high as $120 to $160 billion. Despite the obvious logic, Obama may not realize that almost a decade after the Bush administration invaded Afghanistan, the US military is still fruitlessly engaged in the most ridiculous frontier war in our long history, thousands of miles from our home, in the "badlands" of our planet! Historically, Afghanistan has conquered more important powers than our USA, and is therefore known as the land where superpowers go to be humiliated. Recently, the British were the first, and then came the Soviet Union. Unfortunately for President Obama, who is not the brightest man in our planet, the same tragedy may become the lot of our brave soldiers. SHAME!!