Will Bunch: Reagan Would Be 102, and Against Obama's Drone Policy!

Ronald Reagan was born on this date 102 years ago today. He died in June 2004, but I've written quite a bit about him in the intervening years, especially while, and after I wrote a 2009 book about Reagan and his legacy called "Tear Down This Myth." Why focus so much on a man who left the Oval Office 24 years, who died nearly eight years ago? The main and most important reason is that the modern Republican Party has warped Reagan's legacy for its own 21st century political purposes, twisting his actual views and his official actions on everything from war to taxes into a right wing vision that the "Gipper" himself probably wouldn't recognize. So it's useful from time to time to remind ourselves who Ronald Reagan really was, and wasn't, in order to beat back dumb ideas in the present. Beyond that, I'm a huge fan of recalling our history, in general, because remembering where we've been, can teach us a thing or two about where we are going now. As we debate reducing the federal deficit, for example, it's useful to remember that Reagan saw raising taxes, something he did 11 times as president, as part of the solution. The tale of how Reagan deregulated the savings and loan industry, with disastrous results, should have warned us about deregulating the banksters, even though it clearly didn't. Let's be clear, that there was quite a lot about the real, non mythical Ronald Reagan not to like, his encouragement of a Gordon Gekko economy, that created a yawning gap between rich and poor, his embrace of death squads, and other atrocities by US surrogates in Central America, and his failure to address problems from the Aids crisis, to growing homelessness.        

Jim W. Dean: Uri Avnery Attends the New Knesset!

Israel's preeminent political observer gives us a personal Knesset tour, as no one else can. Turning a new leaf, or the same old thing? We have been anxiously awaiting how the post election maneuvering might give some clues of where the 25% of the seats the Netanyahu Lieberman team ended up, for better or worse. Uri's analysis seems to be still up in the air, but that we should not hold our breath waiting for the tooth fairy to come sprinkling magic dust. I use that analogy, because when I was a kid, this was my first choice of a job when I grew up. It wasn't a cross gender thing at all, but the big stash of cash she had, and magic part being so cool, that attracted me. But mother put the kabosh on that. She threatened to kill me, if she caught me playing tooth fairy, or any other kind. Israeli politics is virtually never covered by American media, and there is good reason for that. America's opinion of Israel, and Israeli's in general would go way down. After all, a fortune has been spent propagandizing us, they are all this homogenous monolithic one mind group, forged together by 2000 years of persecution, which by the way, we are all guilty of, and anything can be done to us out of righteous retribution. You remember that part of the "schtick", I am sure. Everybody else that was persecuted during the 2000 years, sorry: you must go to the back of the bus, and stay there. We will call for you when it is time to clean up. In my early research on the wonderful world of Zionism, I ran across a delightful resolution passed by the Knesset, that listed all the nasty names that members could no longer use, when describing fellow Knesset members. The list went on and on, and on. It was astounding. It was like the Guinness World Record for the longest list of nasty things to call people. What I learned is, that if they are unhappy or upset about anything, you were going to hear a lot about it, and maybe more than you wanted to. Gentiles listening to Israeli Jews getting this treatment and think, "Gee, those are a lot of anti semitic comments I am hearing, but none of them are calling each other anti semites."    

Stephen Lendman: Obama Declares Global Cyberwar!

Throughout his tenure, Obama governed lawlessly for the monied interests that own him. He's waged no holds barred war on humanity. Strategy includes homeland tyranny, fear mongering, saber rattling, hot wars, proxy ones, drone ones, domestic political ones, geopolitical ones, financial ones, anti populist ones, sanctions, subversion, sabotage, targeted assassinations, mass murder, cyberwar, and more. In May 2009, Obama prioritized cyber security. He called cyber threats "one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation." "America's economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber security." He ordered a top to bottom review. A Cyberspace Policy Review report followed. He waged cyber war on Iran. He did so cooperatively with Israel. In spring 2010, Iranian intelligence discovered Stux net malware contamination. The computer virus infected its Bushehr nuclear facility. At the time, operations were halted indefinitely. Israel was blamed. Washington was involved. Had the facility gone online infected, Iran's entire electrical power grid could have been shut down. A more destructive virus called "Flame malware" is known. Internet security experts say it's 20 times more harmful than Stuxnet. Iran's military industrial complex is targeted. So is its nuclear program. Maximum disruption is planned. Obama supports draconian cyber security bills. Passage threatens constitutional freedoms. Targeted assassinations eliminate America's enemies. Lawless domestic spying is policy. So is warrantless wiretapping. Americans are as vulnerable as others. Obama's waging war on humanity. He's doing it multiple ways. Last October, he signed an executive order. It expanded military authority. It authorized cyber attacks. It redefined defense. Doing so lawlessly legitimizes aggression. In November, Presidential Policy Directive 20 followed. It's secret. It set guidelines for confronting cyberspace threats. Last fall, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned of a "cyber Pearl Harbor." It could "cause physical destruction and loss of life," he said. It could "paralyze and shock the nation, and create a new profound sense of vulnerability." 

Common Rights: Genocide Warnings and Updates 2006

The status of these treaties changes. Occasionally. "Reservations," "Understandings," or "Declarations," are attempted by individual countries at signing or ratification. These and the current status of each treaty, are listed with The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in Geneva Switzerland. The applicability of The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide may be affected by the creation of the permanent International Criminal Court, which is empowered to deal with "the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression", based on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, "the most serious crimes of concern to the international community." The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, treaty, and ratification status in both French and English, are available from the United Nations through: http://www.un.org/law/icc/. December 30, 2006, Argentina: Madrid: Rodolfo Almiran, a former police officer, alleged by Argentinian judges to be a member of an anti communist terrorist, death squad group "AAA", operating under President Peron , and wanted for specific murders in Argentina, is arrested in Spain for extradition to Argentina. "Spanish police arrests ex policeman Almiron," Reuters, December 28, 2006, Reuters foundation Alertnet, "Argentine death squad man held, December 28, 2006. Luis Patti, accused of rights abuses was prevented from taking his seat in Congress, partly due to the testimony of a construction worker Luis Gerez, tortured by police during the "dirty war", who disappeared December 27th on the way to buy groceries. His is the second recent disappearance of witnesses testifying against police crimes during the "dirty war".
Montevideo Uruguay: Juan Maria Bordaberry, former President of Uruguay, then dictator under military rule, arrested November 17th, is to be held responsible at law for ten deaths as a result of "the detention and torture to which these people were subjected, as part of a regime installed by Bordaberry, without which these crimes would not have been committed". Information: "Uruguay ex dictator to be tried on 10 more murders," Reuters, December 20, 2006. Many of those who committed crimes under Plan Condor are protected by amnesty laws, serving political and military interests, rather than justice.     

Tom Dispatch: Todd Miller, Locking Down the Borders!

In the always good news category, a Monday front page New York Times piece by David Sanger and Thom Shanker, filled with obvious administration leaks, lays out another step in the White House's march out of American legality. As it has codified its drone assassination strikes, so it has been codifying and "legalizing" another new right of the Executive Branch, the right to launch preemptive cyber-attacks "if the United States detects credible evidence of a major digital attack looming from abroad, even if there is no declared war." Of course, the White House has already launched such a set of attacks against Iran's nuclear program, without even the excuse of a threatened "major digital attack." In other words, in total secrecy it initiated the planet's first state run cyber war, without notice to, or consultation with anyone, and keep in mind that someday, given the potential devastation cyber attacks could wreak on our highly electronic way of life, cyber weapons will surely be reclassified as weapons of mass destruction. In the meantime, with the Pentagon quickly expanding its new Cyber Command, the White House has taken another major form of potential aggression, and given itself the right to use it without the say so of anyone else. It is essentially codifying, and declaring legal a cyber version of George W Bush's post 9/11 doctrine of preemptive war and, for all we know, heading for Dick Cheney's infamous one percent doctrine. Even a one percent chance of an attack on the United States, went Cheney's thinking, especially involving weapons of mass destruction, must be dealt with as if it were a certainty. Yet here's the strange thing. Even when such news hits the front page of the newspaper of record, it somehow doesn't make much of an impression on us. As various forms of perpetual war are made legal by the White House, remarkably few find this worth the bother to discuss or debate, no less protest. Nonetheless, this week Tom Dispatch remains focused on the issue of legality or illegality, and our National Security Complex, as well as on the lock down of this country, since the two are so intertwined. On Sunday, Noam Chomsky explored why "the United States has the right to use violence at will,"and why, when it does, it's "legal."      

Gordon Duff: With UN Report,Will Israeli Settlers be ,

Prosecuted for War Crimes? "Yigal Palmor. speaking for Israel, made it clear that Israel planned to continue to violate international law, and felt it was not subject to UN resolution, the Geneva Convention, or the International Criminal Court at The Hague." On January 31, 2013, a three member UN panel cited Israel as in violation of the human rights of Palestinians, and the sovereignty of the Palestinian  nation. Though a legal case was made for the immediate forcible removal of all Israeli citizens from the West Bank, citing the authority of the nations that are signatory to the Geneva Convention and or members of the International Criminal Court, the real meaning of today's findings is unclear. Typically, the United Nations Security Council, a body that has, historically, protected Israel from compliance with international law through American vetoes, is the deciding body in breaches of the Geneva Convention. However, today's report cites "grave breaches" of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, particularly involving forced deportation, collective punishment and systematic violation of human rights. Precedent established for tribunals, involving Rwanda and Yugoslavia, have established universal jurisdiction under the ICC, under procedures that are not subject to the political wranglings of UNSC politics. Thus, the establishment today of "grave breaches", combined with the newly recognized status of the Palestinian State, if precedent is followed, opens the door for war crimes prosecutions, something otherwise impossible previously. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated that he was in complete agreement with commission findings, and reiterated his previous statement that "all settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, is illegal under international law." The Secretary General made it clear, that the commission's findings, that Israeli settlements contravened the Fourth Geneva Conventions forbidding the transfer of civilian populations into occupied territories. An immediate demand was made for Israel to cease all construction, and to withdraw up to half a million "settlers", whose continued occupation has been deemed illegal. The United Nations was very specific, any and all "settlers" face potential indictment as war criminals.         

Stephen Lendman: Hillary Clinton. Profile of Imperial Arrogance

and lawlessness: She was Washington's 67th Secretary of State. She served from January 21, 2009 to February 1, 2013. She's arguably America's worst. From 2001 to 2009, she was US Senator from New York. In 2008, she challenged Obama for the Democrat party's presidential nomination. Supporters urge her to run again in 2016. She's noncommittal. When asked, she says "I am not not thinking about anything like that right now." She also said she'll do everything she can to make sure that women compete at the highest levels, not only in the United States but around the world." Husband Bill urges her to run. Some suspect she already made her move. With or without her support, a "Ready for Hillary" political action committee was formed. It's raising money for 2016. Campaigning never ends. America's electoral season is seamless. Hillary for 2016 T-shirts are for sale. Friends of Hillary Facebook send regular messages. When launching her 2008 campaign, she said: "I'm in to win." Insiders say she hasn't changed her mind. In 2016, she'll be 69. In December, she scored high in public approval. A Washington Post ABC News poll showed 57% of Americans support her presidential ambitions. Over 80% of Democrats back her candidacy. Two thirds of US women do. Two thirds of Americans give her high marks as America's top diplomat.. She scored higher than any previous Secretary of State in 20 years of polling. In four years, she visited 112 countries. She traveled nearly a million miles. She self promoted everywhere. She has larger than life ambitions. She's gone from State. She's very much still involved. The New York Times profiled her. She's "at the peak of her influence," it said. She's "an instant presidential front runner." She's gone from State. She's very much still involved. The New York Times profiled her. She's "at the peak of her influence," it said. She's "an instant presidential front runner." She's got lots of time to pursue her goal. "We need a new architecture for this new world," she says. Obama exceeded the worst of George Bush. Clinton joined his war cabinet. She's ideologically hardline. She was a Wellesley College Goldwater Girl. She was president of Wellesley's Young Republicans. She's militantly pro war. In the 1990's, she was very much part of Bill's foreign policy team. As an aggressive first lady, she had lots of influence.