As of today, I am not responsible for additional blogs on this venue

My wife and I are now engaged in a long two week journey in Alaska! I will return after my journey ends!!

Marjorie Cohn: Death is Preferable to Life at Obamas Guantanamo!

More than 100 of the 166 detainees at Guantanamo are starving themselves to death. Twenty three of them are being force fed. They strap you to a chair, tie up your wrists, your legs, your forehead and tightly around the waist, Fayiz Al Kandari told his lawyer, Lt. Col. Barry Wingard. Al Kandari, a Kuwaiti held at Guantanamo for 11 years, has never been charged with a crime. The tube maked his eyes water excessively and blood begins to trickle from the nose. Once the tube passes his throat, the gag reflex kicks in. Warm liquid is poured into his body for 45 minutes to two hours. He feels as though his body is going to convulse and often vomits, Wingard added. the United Nations Human Rights Council concluded that force feeding amounts to torture. The American Medical Association says that force feeding violates medical ethics. Every competent patient has the right to refuse medical intervention, including life sustaining interventions, AMA President Jeremy Lazarus wrote to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Yet President Barack Obama continues the tortuous Bush policy of force feeding hunger strikers. Although a few days after his first inauguration, Obama promised to shutter Guantanamo, it remains open. I continue to believe that we have got to close Guantanamo, Obama declared in his April 30 press conference. But, he added, Congress determined that they would not let us close it. Obama signed a bill that Congress passed, which erected barriers to closure. According to a Los Angeles Times editorial, Obama has refused to expend political capital on closing Guantanamo. Rather than veto the defense authorization bills that have limited his ability to transfer inmates, he has signed them while raising questions about whether they intruded on his constitutional authority. I don't want these individuals to die, Obama told reporters. In fact, Obama has the power to save the hunger strikers lives without torturing them. Section 1028 (d) of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act, empowers the Secretary of Defense to approve transfers of detainees, when it is in the national security interest of the United States. Fifty six of the 86 cleared detainees are from Yemen. Yet Obama imposed a ban on releasing any of them, following the foiled 2009 Christmas bomb plot by a Nigerian man who was recruited in Yemen. Obama must begin signing these certifications and waivers at once. 

Colon Todhunter: Psychopathy, Politics and The New World Order.

When attempting to analyse what is happening in the world, it is important to appreciate past economic social and political processes that led us to where we are today. Understanding the tectonic plates of history, that led certain countries towards fascism, communism or capitalist liberal democracy, for example, is essential. At the same time, however, it can become easy for us to push aside the individual as we focus on theoretical perspectives that refer to the underlying logic of capitalism, or some other notion that draws heavily on theory. It can get to the point, where individual
motive or intent is airbrushed from the narrative, because human action is deemed to have been shaped by the dead weight of history or forces beyond our control. While not wishing to understate the role that such constraints have on human action, I wish to draw attention to researcher Stefan Verstappen, who provides valuable insight into how individual agency has shaped and continues to shape society. While 'Machianellianism' has long been associated with politics and public conduct, Verstappen shifts focus somewhat, by arguing that people with psychopathic personalities, have for thousands of years, tended to grasp power and impose their views and deeds on the rest of us. In order to get power, he concludes that people cheat, kill or lie their way to the top. Whether it has been due to the butchery or lies of royalty, religious leaders, politicians or corporate oligarchs, nice guys have tended to finish last. What leads him to conclude this? Psychopathy is a personality disorder identified by characteristics such as lack of empathy and remorse, criminality, anti social behavior, egocentricity, superficial charm, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, impulsivity and a parasitic lifestyle. With that definition in mind, look around: the criminal, parasitic activities by bankers that have plunged millions into poverty, the destruction, war and death brought to countries in order that corporations profit by stealing resources, the dropping of atom bombs on innocent civilians in 1945, or the use of depleted uranium which again impacts innocent civilians, and the many other acts, from the use of death squads to false flag terror, that have brought untold misery to countless others, just because power-holders wanted to hold onto power or to gain more power, or the wealthy wanted to hold onto their wealth or gain even more. Based on these terrible deeds, it becomes easy to argue that the people ultimately responsible for them do not adhere to the same values as ordinary people. It may be even easier to conclude that its not the cream that rises to the top, but, in many cases, the scum! 

Gordon Duff: Was Syria 'nuked'?

File photo shows damage caused by an Israeli airstrike near Damascus on May 5, 2013. Analysis shows Syria came under attack by Israel using, not just nuclear weapons, but an American nuclear bunker buster bomb, one of several supplied to Israel to use against Iran, one of the last acts of the Bush Cheney administration. Striking evidence of the use of American EPW, Earth Penetrating Weapons, nuclear weapons in Syria has come to light. Experts say the proof is irrefutable. Dramatic video footage from Syria has revealed startling evidence that counters Israel's claims of surgical strikes on weapons headed to Lebanon. What were said to be air strikes, is now proven to have actually been artillery, something easily discernible to even an untrained observer. What happens next is shocking. While artillery shells rain down on Syrian army positions, mobile Israeli artillery in direct support and even accompanying rebel forces inside Syria, a huge explosion occurs. After analysis, it had become clear, Syria had come under attack by Israel using, not just nuclear weapons, but an American nuclear bunker buster bomb, one of several supplied to Israel to use against Iran, one of the last acts of the Bush Cheney administration. Submitted for analysis, the footage was compared with tests of the 37,000 pound MOP Massive Ordnance Penetrator, designed by Boeing to be uses against Iran's underground facilities. There was no similarity whatsoever noted between the Syrian event, and a conventional bunker buster including the GBU 57, the largest conventional weapon every to be used. Colonel James Hanke, former Defense Attache and Liaison between the Pentagon and Netanyahu's government, reviewed the footage. He indicated that the GBU 57 is considered too high a risk for use, because of its danger to the earth's crust. The Syrian African fault line spreads into Israel. Were it to be subjected to this kind of explosive power, the threat of an earthquake doing significant damage to Israel is a reality. The nuclear bunker busters have far less penetrating power and, I am not saying that this was a nuclear device, not until more evidence is in, but the event profile shows striking similarities. The other problem with the GBU 57 is delivery. Only two aircraft are capable of delivering this weapon, the B-52 and the B-2 Stealth Bomber. Israel does not have these aircraft. Collapse of US Air Force Command Structure: Again Thus, if a MOP where used, it could have only been delivered by the United States Air Force, an organization reeling from recent disasters within its own ranks after a second lapse in nuclear weapons security in a five year period was discovered at Minot Air Force Base in South Dakota.