Global Research Newsletter: The Houla Massacre Disinformation!

In the wake of the Houla massacre and the flow of disinformation aimed at blaming the Syrian government for the atrocities, Global Research brings to the attention of its readers a selection of key articles, which demonstrate unequivocally that the massacre was committed by the US-NATO supported Free Syrian Army (FSA). According to Prof. Chandra Muzaffar, There is no credible, independent entity that can help reveal the entire truth about the Houla massacre. The United Nations Human Rights Council, which has passed a resolution condemning the massacre hastily targeted the Syrian government as the culprit without waiting for reports from the UN-Arab League Observer Mission in Syria. This is one of the reasons why China, Cuba and Russia voted against the resolution. The Council has since the outbreak of the conflict in Syria 14 months ago adopted an antagonistic attitude towards the government. In all its submissions to the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly, it has ignored or downplayed the views of the Syrian government. According to Ronda Hauben, in an article entitled "The United Nations and the Houla Massacre: The Houla Massacre: The Information Battlefield: The narrative that is being spread by much of the mainstream western and Arab satellite media is a narrative that blames the Assad government for the Houla massacre. At first that media claimed that the people killed, including women and children, had been killed by shelling from Syrian troops attacking the town. In examining the videos and photos put on- line or provided by the opposition making these claims. However, it became evident that many of the victims, particularly the women and children, had been killed at close range by bullets and knives, and not by the shelling of heavy weapons by the Syrian military.   

Chris Floyd: The Liberals' Clumsy Dance Across Obama's Killing Floor

The turbulent ramifications of last week's New York Times story detailing the operations of Barack Obama's White House death squad continue to reverberate across the country today, sending shock waves through Washington and bringing crowds of outraged protesters. Just kidding! As we all know, there have been no "ramifications" at all from this shocking story, no scandal whatsoever surrounding the fact that the President of the United States and his aides meet every week to draw up lists of people to be killed all over the world, even people who are completely unknown, who might simply be "behaving" in unspecified ways that some desk jockey somewhere has decided might possibly be indicative of malign intent. No scandal, no consequences, no imbroglio, no brouhaha. The caravan moved on, and the dogs didn't even bark. But wait, that's not quite true. There was one minor scandal issuing, in part, from the story. Republicans seized the opportunity to accuse Obama, again, of leaking classified matters for his own political gain. Obama was forced to deny authorizing the leaks from his closest advisers and friends happened to leak this top-secret information without his knowledge. This was followed by bipartisan Congressional calls to cloak the government's atrocities in even thicker clouds of murk. Thus the only consequence from the revelation that the US government not only asserts the arbitrary right to kill anyone on earth, but actually has a formal process to carry out this serial murder, is that it will now be harder than ever to expose any of the crimes and corruption and sinister follies of the vast national security "apparat". But as for the moral content of the murder program, there has been no scandal at all. 

Reuters: Afghanistan: Suicide Bombers Kill 20 Civilians Near NATO Base!

A pair of suicide bombers struck outside NATO's biggest base in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing 20 civilians and wounding 50, officials said, in one of the bloodiest attacks in recent weeks. Officials and villagers in Logar province, about 30 km south of Kabul, said a NATO air strike killed 18 civilians, including women and children, along with six Taliban insurgents. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said there was an air strike in the area during a raid on a Taliban commander, but there were no civilian deaths. It said two women received non-life threatening injuries and that a number of insurgents were killed. Four provincial governors from the south were at a meeting at the sprawling NATO base in Kandahar when the twin suicide attacks took place. General Abdul Hameed, Afghan army commander for the southern region, told Reuters. A bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up in a parking lot near the base, packed with truck drivers and other civilians waiting to get into the facility. A few minutes later, as people gathered at the site of the blast, another bomber on foot walked into the crowd and detonated his explosives, said Ahmad Faisal, a spokesman for the provincial governor. A spokesman for the NATO-led force said the coalition was aware of the incident, but directed all questions to civilian authorities. Violence has surged across Afghanistan since the Taliban began a spring offensive in April, vowing to target the Afghan government and security forces, as well as the 130,000 foreign troops in the country. Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, has seen some of the worst attacks. The violence has stoked concern that Afghan forces may struggle against a Taliban insurgency at its deadliest once most Western combat troops leave by the end of 2014.   

Mike Lux: My Brother Kevin Contributes Greatly to Our Society!

At my father's funeral, the presiding minister, Ebb Munden, was a man who had been one of my dad's closest friends. Ebb talked about how the last time he had gone to see my dad before he lost consciousness, he had been very emotional, but that my dad had comforted him by gripping his hand and telling him it would be all right, that he was at peace and Ebb should be, too. The lesson was that even at our physically weakest, we could still help other people and make things better in the world. I was thinking of that this past weekend, when I went to see my brother Kevin back home in Lincoln, Nebraska. Kevin is one of those people whom followers of Ayn Rand's philosophy would call a leech on society. Rand believed that people with disabilities were leeches and parasites on society, and that the "parasites should perish." Kevin's birth father broke a chair over his head and gave him brain damage, so he is developmentally disabled and has difficulty speaking clearly. He came to my family when we were both 11 years old, and has been not only my brother, but one of my closest friends ever since. As an adult in recent years, his body has continued to betray him as he is hard of hearing, can't see well, and has muscular dystrophy. Recently, he had to go into a hospital for major surgery, and then developed pneumonia. His muscular dystrophy makes it especially tough to recover from all this. For all of that, though, Kevin still contributes to the world around him, just as he always has. He has always shown great tenderness to the people around him, and still does.    

Medea Benjamin: Another War Criminal Cashes In

One could be forgiven for thinking there's anything honorable or honest about Colin Powell. For more than two decades now, the Washington media has portrayed the former Secretary of State as something of a real life action hero, a reluctant warrior whose greatest fault, should they deign to mention any, was just being too darn loyal to a guy named George and his buddy Dick. What you might have missed is that Powell is a war criminal in his own right, one who in more than four decades of "public service" helped kill people from Vietnam to Panama to Iraq, who never posed a threat to America. But don't just take some anti-war activists' word for it: Powell will proudly tell you as much, so long as he can make a buck from doing it in a book. Powell's latest $27.99 account of his legendary life is billed as a "powerful portrait of a leader who is reflective, self-effacing, and grateful for the contributions of everyone he works with." But the title, It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership, could very well refer to Powell's own careerist ambitions: saying and doing whatever served the interests of power, as a young officer in Vietnam, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the illegal invasion of Panama, as Secretary of State under George W. Bush, has worked out tremendously well for the man, if not so much for those unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of his public service. Though billed as a self-effacing, humble leader prepared to admit mistakes, the real Colin Powell is not the one advertised by the PR department at HarperCollins. His book makes that clear enough, when he discusses his now infamous 2003 presentation before the United Nations on Iraq's alleged stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction.     

Tony Cartalucci: US Attempts to Mass Murder Victury in Syria!

US to Russia: "Give Up" or Swim in a Sea of Syrian Blood! As revelations emerge that the violence in Syria has been premeditated by Western planners years before the Arab Spring unfolded, and as the facade of "democratic aspirations" collapsed in the face of sectarian-driven bloodbath, US officials and Western think-tank policy makers speaking with Bloomberg have stated that their final message to Russia in order to begin regime change is essentially this: The violence will continue to be purposefully escalated until regime change is accomplished. Russia can capitulate now and have a say in how transition occurs, or capitulate later and suffer exclusion, as was the case in Libya. Bloomberg cites "US officials" who claim they are meeting wih Russia to seek an "orderly transition." Just how close the US is, or believes it is to actually overthrowing the Syrian government is a matter of varied opinion. What is not opinion is the fact that the US has openly conspired to "bleed" Syria to death, to perpetually limit its geopolitical influence throughout the Middle East, or to eventually precipitate the fall of the government: This was stated very clearly in Brookings Institution's "Middle East Memo #21, "Assessing Options for Regime Change". "An alternative is for diplomatic efforts to focus first on how to end the violence and how to gain humanitarian access, as is being done under Annans leadership. This may lead to the creation of safe-havens and humanitarian corridors, which would have to be backed by limited military power. This would, of course,fall short of US goals for Syria, and could preserve Asad in power.  

Kourosh Ziabari: The Plan of the Saudi-Bahrain Merger!

The recently declared plan by the members of Persian Gulf Cooperation Council to annex the soil of Bahrein to Saudi Arabia and form a greater Arab union has attested to the fact that the tyrannical and merciless rulers of Arab sheikhdoms in the Persian Gulf are still obliviously living in the colonial era, dating back to the early 1550s, when the world's major colonial powers relied on the power of arms and ammunition to conquer and attain new territories and put the rivals' nose out of joint in a conspicuous show-off of muscle-flexing. It's more than a year that the spirited, courageous youths of Bahrain have refused to leave the streets of capital Manama and other major cities of the country, continuously demanding the downfall of the dictatorial regime of Al Khalifa which is unconditionally financed, armed and backed by the United States and its puppet allies Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. The Witness Bahrain website associated with the opposition groups puts the number of civilian deaths resulting from Al Khalifa crackdown on the peaceful protesters in the past 15 months at 65, but it is not certain that the number of protesters killed at the hands of the mercenaries of Al Khalifa regime is far greater than this: Over the past year, the Bahraini officials resorted to every means at their disposal to distract the public attention from their bloody crackdown on the peaceful protestors demanding the ouster of the King and the dissolution of his despotic government. They even refused to cancel the Grand Prix 2012 race in April 2012, amid growing international protests by the mass media, human rights groups, academicians and politicians who had felt and recognized the depth of the catastrophe taking place in the tiny Persian Gulf country.