Stephen Lendman: Another Foiled False Flag!!

Wikipedia defines false or black flags as "covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities." "The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors. That is: flying the flag of a country other than one's own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations and can be used during peace-time." Big lies substitute for truth. Stories are fabricated. Media scoundrels promote them. At issue is heightening fear for planned policies. Pretexts are needed for militarism, imperial wars, and homeland repression. If and when people learn they were duped, it's too late to matter. It's an American tradition! Incidents are strategically timed. Innocent victims suffer. So does everyone living under heightened national security state conditions. Threats are manufactured. States of emergency are declared. Rule of law principles are discarded. Unchallenged dominance alone matters. Wars on humanity follow. Big lies facilitate them. False flags play their part. Here we go again. This one's a sequel. Perhaps Hollywood blockbusters will follow, first the original plot, then the latest. More on the earlier one below. On May 7, AP headlined "US: CIA thwarts new al-Qaida underwear bomb plot," saying: Agents foiled "an ambitious plot by al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen to destroy a US-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, The Associated Press has learned," AP described an upgraded underwear bomb plot. Like the earlier one, it was "designed to be used in a passenger's underwear, but this time" US officials called it "more refined." 

Global Research: Down but Not Defeated - Why the Truth Must be Told!!

Elections in so-called "democratic states" give us the illusion of choice, while maintaining a status quo that sees the rich get richer and the poor scrambling to redefine their definitions of "rock bottom". In fact, the United States of America couldn't be farther from being "the land of milk and honey" as it once proclaimed itself to be, its promise of wealth and stability, the oft-referenced yet seldom seen "American dream", is undeniably buried in the realm of wishful thinking for the majority of people, that is. The good news is, that majority can no longer afford to stay complacent in the face of rampant financial exploitation by a ruling minority that knows no bounds to its power-lust. In his recent article, "Economic Austerity in America: The Portland Community Begins to Fight Austerity", Shamus Cooke provides insight on how citizens are standing up to the hypocrisy and manipulations of America's corporate elite: "Those who caused the recession, Wall Street, the big banks and corporations must be made to pay for it. The broader population can achieve this goal only if it is united and acts collectively. In Portland, the first step was taken in this direction at this recent community meeting, where working people saw each others struggles as their own, understood the necessity of united action by the vast majority towards a common goal, and were inspired by the prospects of working together." And despite the mainstream media's ongoing attempts to stifle news about the massive student protests that have been exploding in Montreal, Canada in recent months, the sheer scale of the actions and the determination of the protesters is only gaining momentum.     

Felicity Arbuthnot: First Madeleine Albright, now Prince Harry!

You fasten the triggers for others to fire, Then you sit back and watch, When the death count gets higher. You hide in your mansion, As young peoples blood Flows out of their bodies And is buried in mud (Masters of War, Bob Dylan, 1941). Humanitarian Awards are surely taking on a whole new meaning. The end of April brought the obscenity of the announcement that Madeleine Albright, a woman prepared to sacrifice children was to be awarded America's highest honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for her role as a long time champion of democracy and human rights all over the world. In the same twenty four hours, an announcement was made that Britain's Prince Harry is to receive a special award for his humanitarian work. The Distinguished Humanitarian Leadership award recognizes outstanding achievement and is presented annually by the Atlantic Council. Prince Harry and his brother, Prince William, have been jointly nominated, with Prince Harry traveling to Washington to accept on behalf of both, on 7th May. Madeleine Albright's latest honor for her services to humanity, has been awarded to others who compete admirably with her dedication. They include such peerless war mongers as Henry Kissinger, Donald Rumsfeld, General Colin Powell, whose pack of lies to the United Nations initiated Iraq's destruction, and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose offices and officers provided those lies. That human 'dove of peace', Dick Chaney has been a recipient, as has his Israeli counterpart, Shimon Perez and General Norman 'No one left to kill Schartzkopf, to name a few. Fellow recipient of the Award with Albright is Bob Dylan. "Funny World." Prince William and Harry are both in the armed forces, between social engagements. In a career move that has been dubbed by many as a cynical PR stunt, William flies Naval Rescue helicopters. Seemingly it no longer looks good for a future king to kill people!   

Anne Gearan: Support for War in Afghanistan Falls to New Low!!

Only 27 percent of Americans are saying they back the effort, and about half of those who oppose the war are saying the continued presence of American troops in Afghanistan is doing more harm than good, according to an AP-GfK poll. In results released Wednesday, 66 percent opposed the war, with 40 percent saying they were "strongly" opposed. A year ago, 37 percent favored the war, and in the spring of 2010, support was 46 percent. Eight percent strongly supported the war in the new poll. The poll found that far fewer people than last year think the killing of Osama bin Laden by US troops increased the threat of terrorism against Americans. Overall, 27 percent say the al-Qaida leader's death resulted in an increased terror threat. 31 percent believe his death decreased the threat of terrorism and 38 percent say it has no effect. The poll was conducted before the revelation this week of a recent al-Qaida plot to blow up a US bound airliner with an underwear bomb. Chris Solomon, an independent from Fuquay-Varina, NC, is among the respondents who strongly oppose the war. He said the military mission has reached the limits of its ability to help Afghans or make Americans any safer, and he would close down the war immediately, if he could. While the rationale for the war is to fight al-Qaida, most of the day-to-day combat is against an entrenched Taliban insurgency that will outlast the foreign fighters, he said. "What are we really doing there? Whom are we helping?" he said in an interview. Yet nearly half, 48 percent, said the continued presence of US troops in Afghanistan is doing more to help Afghanistan become a stable democracy, while 36 percent said the opposite, and 14 percent said they didn't know. Among those opposed to the war, 49 percent say US troops are hurting more than helping.  

Fidel Castro Ruz: What Obama Knows?

The most demolishing article I have seen nowadays about Latin America was written by Renan Vega Cantor, full professor at the National Pedagogical University of Bogota, which was published three days ago by the website 'Rebelion' under the title "Ecos de la Cumbre de las Americas" (Echoes of the Summit of the Americas). It is a brief article and I should make no versions. Those who specialize on the subject can look it up at the aforementioned website. I have referred more than once to the infamous agreement that the United States imposed on Latin American and Caribbean countries when the OAS was founded at the foreign ministers meeting held in the city of Bogota on April 1948. Just by sheer coincidence, I happened to be there on that date, helping to organize the celebration of a Latin American students' congress, whose main goal was to struggle against the European colonies and the bloody tyrannies imposed by the United States in this hemisphere. One of the most brilliant political leaders in Columbia, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, who had managed to unite, with ever growing strength, the most progressive sectors in Columbia that opposed the Yankees' mis-creation, had offered his support to the celebration of the students' congress. No one doubted he would win during the upcoming elections, but he was treacherously murdered. His death led to a rebellion that has kept alive for more than half a century. Social struggles have been taking place throughout millennia, since human beings, by resorting to wars, were able to take hold of a surplus production to satisfy the essential needs of life. As is known, the years of physical slavery, the most brutal form of exploitation, went on in some countries until a little more than a century ago.    

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: Disinformation On Every Front!

Some readers have come to the erroneous conclusion that the Matrix consists of Republican Party disinformation as if there were no disinformation from the left. Others think that propaganda is the business of Obama and the Democrats. In fact, propaganda from the right, the left and the middle are all part of the disinformation fed to Americans. If I may give some examples: The other day Chuck Colson, one of the Nixon officials imprisoned for Watergate crimes, died. This gave NPR the opportunity to relive the Nixon horror. What precisely was the Nixon horror? Essentially, there was no such thing. Watergate was about President Nixon lying about when he learned about the Watergate burglary. When Nixon learned about the burglary, he did not act on it prior to his reelection, because he reasoned, rightly, that the Washington Post would blame him for the burglary, although he had nothing to do with it, in the hopes of preventing his reelection. By going along with a cover-up, Nixon enabled the Washington Post to make an issue of the precise date on which Nixon learned of the burglary. White House tapes indicated that Nixon had learned of the burglary before he said he learned of it. So Nixon had permitted a cover-up, and had to go, but what was the real reason? What was the Watergate burglary? We don't really know. A group of men, including former CIA operatives were hired by the Committee to Re-elect the President to break into a Democratic campaign office in the Watergate complex. We don't really know. A group of men, including former CIA operatives were hired by the Committee to Re-elect the President to break into a Democratic campaign office in the Watergate complex. We don't know the purpose of the burglary. Some claim it was to wire-tap the telephones in the belief that the Democratic Party was getting re-election money from communists in Cuba or elsewhere.   

Noam Chomsky: Do We Have the Makings of a Real Revolution?

The Occupy movement has been an extremely exciting development. Unprecedented, in fact. There's never been anything like it that I can think of. If the bonds and associations it has established can be sustained through a long, dark period ahead, because victory won't come quickly, it could prove a significant moment in American history. The fact that the Occupy movement is unprecedented is quite appropriate. After all, it's an unprecedented era, and has been so since the 1970s, which marked a major turning point in American history. For centuries, since the country began, it had been a developing society, and not always in very pretty ways. That's another story, but the general progress was toward wealth, industrialization, development, and hope. There was a pretty constant expectation that it was going to go on like this. That was true even in very dark times. I'm just old enough to remember the Great Depression. After the first few years, by the mid-1930s, although the situation was objectively much harsher than it is today, nevertheless, the spirit was quite different. There was a sense that "we're gonna get out of it," even among unemployed people, including a lot of my relatives, a sense that "it will get better." There was a militant labor union organizing going on, especially from the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations). It was getting to the point of sit-down strikes, which are frightening to the business world, you see it in the business press at the time, because a sit-down strike is just a step before taking over the factory and running it yourself. The idea of worker takeovers is something which is, incidentally, very much on the agenda today, and we should keep it in mind.