Nick Turse: America's Shadow Wars in Africa!

Here's an odd question: Is it possible that the US military is present in more countries and more places now than at the height of the Cold War? It's true that the US is reducing its forces, and giant bases in Europe, and that its troops are out of Iraq, except for that huge, militarized embassy in Baghdad. On the other hand, there's that massive ground, air, and build-up in the Persian Gulf, the Obama administration's widely publicized "pivot" to Asia, including troops and ships, those new drone bases in the eastern Indian Ocean region, some movement back into Latin America, including a new base in Chile, and don't forget Africa, where less than a decade ago, the US had almost no military presence at all. Now, as Tom-Dispatch Associate Editor Nick Turse writes in the latest in his "changing face of empire" series, US special operations forces, regular troops, private contractors, and drones are spreading across the continent with remarkable, if little noticed, rapidity. Putting together the pieces on Africa isn't easy: For instance, only the other day it was revealed that three US Army commandos in a Toyota Land Cruiser had skidded off a bridge in Mali in April. They died, all three, along with three women identified as Moroccan prostitutes. This is how we know that US special operations forces were operating in chaotic, previously democratic Mali after a coup by a US trained captain accelerated the unraveling of the country, leading more recently to its virtual dismemberment by Tuareg rebels and Islamist insurgents. Consider this a sample of what Nick Turse calls the US military's scramble for Africa, in a seamy, secretive nutshell.

Richard Norton-Taylor: Arab Spring took British Intelligence by Surprise.

Britain's intelligence agencies were surprised by the Arab spring, and their failure to realize unrest would spread so rapidly, may reveal a lack of understanding of the region, according to the parliamentary body set up to scrutinize their activities. A particularly sharp passage of the intelligence and security committee's (ISC) report describes as "ill-considered" an attempt by MI6 to smuggle into Libya two officers who were promptly seized by rebels. The report says that at the time the Arab spring erupted, both MI6 and GCHQ, the government's electronic eavesdropping center, were cutting resources devoted to Arab countries. The criticism of MI6's attitude is all the more significant, given the agency's traditional close ties to the Arab world. The ISC, chaired by the former Conservative foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, said it was understandable that the intelligence agencies were taken by surprise, "as indeed were the governments in the countries affected". However, it said there were questions about whether the agencies "should have been able to anticipate how events might subsequently unfold, and whether the fact that they did not realize that the unrest would spread so rapidly across the Arab World, demonstrates  a lack of understanding about the region". SAS troops escorted MI6 officers to Libya in a Chinook helicopter, and dropped them off at a desert location south of Benghazi in the middle of the night in March 2011. The mission was an embarrassment to the British government and the anti-Gaddafi rebels alike. MI6 "misjudged the nature and level of risk involved", the ISC said. It noted that the lessons had been taken seriously by MI6, and added: "We would have expected nothing less." The incident "demonstrates a lack of operational planning that we would not have expected from MI6 and other participants" it said.   

Rick Rozoff: War on Syria and Imperial Hubris!

War on Syria and Imperial Hubris: Clinton Demands Russia and China to pay the Price. At the third meeting of the so-called Friends of Syria in Paris on July 6, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proved once again that diplomacy is to the United States what refined dining etiquette is to a jackal. The third such meeting, earlier versions were held in post-revolution Tunisia and in Turkey, a NATO member with military forces massed on Syria's border, was opened by French President Francois Hollande, who already is making his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy appear less anomalously egregious, who declaimed, Bashir al Assad must go. A transitional government must be set up. The head of state of Syria's former colonial master also engaged in comic opera theatrics by observing a moment of silence for some of the victims in Syria, and insisted that the Syrian governments fall is inevitable. Just as Sarkozy had done last year with the governments of Ivory Coast and Libya. Just as Clinton had done last year with the governments of Ivory Coast and Libya. Just as Clinton had done with both as well and now with Syria. But Hollande was only the compere who warmed up the audience for the true personification of 21st century imperial hubris Clinton. She, who in February referred to Russia and China as being despicable for blocking a resolution in the United Nations Security Council aimed at the regime change in Syria mentioned above, abandoned any remaining element of restraint, a quality she has never been noted for, any more than the subtlety, judgment, humility, fairness and other seemingly outdated virtues and exploited the Syrian crisis to crudely excoriate Russia and China once again. Her shrill diatribe included an attempt to incite attendees from over 100 countries and organizations against two alleged villains: I ask you to reach out to Russia and China and to not only urge, but demand that they get off the sidelines and begin to support the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people. 

Bill Moyers: The Cowardly Lions of 'Free Speech'!

In all the hullabaloo over the Supreme Court's decision on health care, another of its rulings quickly fell off the public radar. Before deciding the fate of the Affordable Care Act, the Court announced it would not reconsider Citizens United, the odious 5-4 decision two years ago, that opened our elections to unlimited contributions. Within minutes of that announcement, right wing partisans were crowing about the advantage they now own, an advantage not due to ideas or personalities, but to the sheer force of money. They were remarkably candid and specific. For three weeks in May, Republica super Pac's took turns attacking Democratic senator Claire McCaskill in TV ads, Republicans hadn't held their primary, it's not until August 7, but McCaskill wound up trailing all three of the GOP candidates in polls. Now McCaskill, unnerved, is struggling to recover: That's what super-PAC's can do! When they emerged in 2010 and worked in tandem, they were a critical force in the Republican landslide in the congressional elections. This year, they're playing an even bigger role. The size and reach of their efforts dwarf what they did two years ago. Attaboy, Fred, for telling it like it is, for exposing the hoax that the Court's original decision was about "free" speech. No, it's about carpet bombing elections with all the tonnage your rich paymasters want to buy. Try not to laugh, when you hear one of its perpetrators, the noted lawyer Floyd Abrams, say, as he did not too long ago: "I don't think we should want as a matter of policy, to make decisions which are essentially, people can't do all the speaking that they can in a political campaign: I don't think we can ration speech." Speech already is rationed. On your playing field, Barnes and Abrams, those who have no money have no speech!

Robert Cruickshank: Following In Germany's Fascist Footsteps!

What happens when a nation that was once an economic powerhouse turns its back on democracy and on its middle class, as wealthy right wingers wage austerity campaigns and enable extremist politics? It may sound like America in 2012, but it was also Germany in 1932. Most Americans have never heard of the Weimar Republic, Germany's democratic interlude between World War I and World War II. Those who have usually see it as a prologue to the horrors of Nazi Germany, an unstable transition between imperialism and fascism. In this view, Hitler's rise to power is treated as an inevitable outcome of the Great Depression, rather than the result of a decision by right wing politicians to make him chancellor in early 1933. Historians reject teleological approaches to studying the past. No outcome is inevitable, even if some are more likely than others. Rather than looking for predictable outcomes, we ought to be looking to the past to understand how systems operate, especially liberal capitalist democracies. In that sense, Weimar Germany holds many useful lessons for contemporary Americans. In particular, there are four major points of similarity between Weimar Germany and Weimar America worth examining: Today's German leaders preach the virtues of austerity. They justify their opposition to the inflationary, growth creating policies that Europe desperately needs, by pointing to the hyperinflation that occurred in 1923, and became one of the most enduring memories of the Weimar Republic. Yet the austerity policies enacted after the onset of the Depression produced the wost of Germany's economic crisis, while also destabilizing the country's politics. Cuts to wages, benefits and public programs dramatically worsened unemployment, hunger and suffering.

Susanne Pose: Obama Seizes Control of All Communications Systems!

President Obama has usurped all available forms of communication for use and discretion of the US government. Under executive order (EO June 6, 2012). Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions. Obama has enabled the executive branch to control communications under all circumstances to ensure national security, effectively manage emergencies, and improve national resilience. Radio and wired communications systems of all levels of government, the private and nonprofit sectors, and the public must inform the development of national security and emergency preparedness (NS/EP) communications policies, programs, and capabilities. Cellular phone corporations like Sprint, owned Boost Mobile have released messages to their customers concerning the US governments allocation of their phone communications at the whim of the President. In a text message to customers, Boost Mobile said that You can receive national and local emergency alerts directly on your phone. Back in 2011, Hillary Clinton admitted that the US government, via the mainstream media, is losing their information war with the American public. As alternative media becomes more prevalent, the propaganda must be taken up a notch in order to keep the masses on-board with the agendas of the US government. Danny Schechter, filmmaker and investigative journalist, explains that MSM cannot compete with the alternative media. Schechter says that America feels on the defensive, because it can no longer monopolize the thoughts of citizens domestically and abroad. Since the US government thinks its point of view these new news outlets are extremely damaging to the US continual purveyance of propaganda.  

Adele M. Stan: Religious Right's Field Test for Beating Obama.

A mere 10 days since Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefish survived the recall election launched against them by state's liberal coalition, Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, is ebullient as he takes the stage at his organization's Washington, DC gala on the final night of FFC's national conference at the Renaissance Hotel. Reed has good reason to be happy. His return to the religious right spotlight is a turn of events that few would have bet on. Since he first burst on the political scene in the 1990s as the "Wunderkind" executive director of Rev. Pat Robertson's "Christian Coalition", Reed's political trajectory took him so close to the sun that his wings nearly melted. When George W Bush signed him as a strategist for the 2000 presidential campaign, Reed's career soared, only to crash four years later with revelations of his involvement in the Jack Abramoff scandal. Along the way, he made a lot of money, and is reported to live with his wife and two of his four children in a house in Duluth Georgia, worth $2.2 million. The boyish contours of his face, now marked with the occasional line, Reed, at 51, still conveys a youthful vigor, fit and trim in a well tailored dark suit, with his full head of hair brushed neatly back to display a smooth forehead. Taking no small measure of credit for the triumph of Walker and Kleefish, Reed boasts of the 600,000 voter contacts he says his organization made to get conservative Wisconsinites to the polls on June 5. Later that evening, Reed will present to Kleefish, who is billed as Wisconsin's answer to Sarah Palin, FFC's Courage in Leadership Award.