Steve Watson: More Footage of Military Vehicles

being delivered surfaces online: Footage of hundreds of armored trucks, similar to ones reportedly purchased recently by the Department of Homeland Security, has appeared online, raising more questions over their intended use. The first video was uploaded to YouTube last week, by a user who stated, that it was shot in the middle of the desert, between Hackberry and Peach Springs, Arizona. It shows hundreds of military style trucks loaded on a train, presumably in the process of being delivered domestically for law enforcement or military purposes. The video raises significant questions, in the wake of reports, that the Department of Homeland Security, headed by Janet Napolitano, recently purchased around 2,700 MRAP trucks, that many believe, are to be deployed to local law enforcement agencies around the country. It is clear, that the DHS does have fleets of armored vehicles, intended for use in the US. Here is a demonstration video of such a vehicle by ICE agents. Does the latest video show these same type of trucks in the process of being delivered? The footage is the latest, in a spate of similar videos, to surface on the internet in recent months, showing huge amounts of military equipment packed into trains en route within the US. As we reported today, the DHS' mass arms build up continues, with the report that the agency has bought another 360,000 rounds of hollow point ammunition, to add to the roughly 2 billion bullets already bought over the last year. Such stark activity, with little to no background detail, has prompted several Congressmen to ask the federal government for an explanation. According to some elected representatives, the DHS has refused to answer specific questions on the purchases, stating only that the ammunition is for training purposes over the next five years, and has been bulk ordered to save money. As we have pointed out numerous times, military experts have noted, that hollow point bullets are unsuitable for training, and much more expensive than full metal jackets. Efforts by government media mouthpieces to dismiss the story, have only caused it to become more viral. The DHS has also purchased 7,000 fully automatic assault rifles, as well as cementing a $2 million dollar relationship with a contractor, that recently had to apologize, for producing shooting targets of pregnant women, children and elderly gun owners, depicted in residential settings. The DHS has also been busy, buying large supplies of body armor, leading to shortages. Last year, the agency put out an urgent order for riot gear, in anticipation of civil unrest. The agency has also ordered bullet proof checkpoint booths, and hired hundreds of new security guards, to protect government buildings, over the course of the last 12 months. None of this has been addressed by the mainstream media.     

Robert Parry: Have We Ever Wondered Why Bush Invaded Iraq?

A decade after President George W Bush ordered the unprovoked invasion of Iraq, one of the enduring mysteries has been why. There was the rationale, sold to a frightened American people in 2002 to 2003, that Saddam Hussein was plotting to attack them with Weapons of Mass Destruction, but no one in power really believed that. There have been other, more plausible explanations. George Bush the younger, wanted to avenge a perceived slight to George Bush the elder, while also outdoing his father as a war president. Vice President Dick Cheney had his eye on Iraq's oil wealth, and the Republican Party saw an opportunity to create its permanent majority behind a glorious victory in the Middle East. Though George W Bush's defenders vigorously denied being motivated by such crass thinking, those rationales do seem closer to the truth. However, there was another driving force behind the desire to conquer Iraq: The neoconservative belief that the conquest would be a first step toward installing compliant pro US regimes throughout the Middle East, and letting Israel dictate final peace terms to its neighbors. That rationale has often been dressed up as democratizing the Middle East, but the idea was more a form of neocolonialism, in which American proconsuls would make sure, that a favored leader, like the Iraqi National Congress' Ahmed Chalabi would control each country, and align the nations' positions with the interests of the United States and Israel. Some analysts have traced this idea back to the "neocon" Project for the New American Century in the late 1990s, which advocated for regime change in Iraq, but the idea's origins go back to the early 1990s and two seminal events. The first game changing moment came in 1990's to 91, when President HW Bush showed off the unprecedented advancements in US military technology. Almost from the moment that Iraq's Saddam Hussein invaded Kuweit in 1990, the Iraqi dictator began signaling his willingness to withdraw, after having taught the arrogant al Sabah ruling family in Kuweit a lesson in power politics, but the Bush 41 administration wasn't willing to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Kuwait invasion. Instead of letting Hussein arrange an orderly withdrawal, Bush 41 began baiting him with insults, and blocking any face saving way for a retreat. Peace feelers from Hussein, and later from Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, were rebuffed, as Bush 41 waited his chance to demonstrate the stunning military realities of his New World Order, even as the US field commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf favored Gorbachev's plan for letting Iraqi forces pull back, but Bush 41 was determined to have a ground war!   

Prof. James Petras: The Obama Kerry Hagel Regime.

Selling death, and buying Assassins in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. As President Obama enters his second term with a new Cabinet, the foreign policy legacy of the past four years, weighs heavily on their strategic decisions, and their empire building efforts. Central to the analysis of the next period, is an evaluation of the past policies, especially in regions, where Washington expended its greatest financial and military resources, namely the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa. We will proceed, by examining the accomplishments and failures, of the Obama Clinton regime. We will then turn to the ongoing policy efforts to sustain the empire building project. We will then turn to the ongoing policy efforts to sustain the empire building project. We will take account of the constrains and opportunities, which define the parameters resulting from imperial military ambitions, Israeli Zionist influence in shaping policy, and the ongoing anti imperial struggles. We will conclude by examining likely policies and outcomes, resulting from current strategies: The Accomplishments.The greatest success of the Obama Clinton Imperial legacy was the virtual elimination of organized domestic anti war dissent, the demise of the peace movement, and the co option of virtually the entire progressive leadership in the US, while multiplying the number of proxy wars, overt and covert military operations and defense spending. As a result, the entire political spectrum moved further to the right, toward greater militarization abroad, and increased police state measures at home. Facing mass revolts, and the overthrow of long standing client regimes in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen, the Obama Clinton Administration moved rapidly to reconfigure new client regimes, while preserving the state apparatus, the military, intelligence, police, judicial and civilian bureaucracy. The empire dumped incumbent regimes, in order to save the repressive state, the key guarantor of US strategic interests. Washington successfully engineered a political pact between conservative Islamist leaders, and parties of the old military elite. The new political blocs in Egypt, upheld Israeli annexation of Palestine, the brutal blockade of Gaza, and the neo liberal economic order. Washington repeated the reshuffle of clients in Yemen and Tunisia. The OC intervention temporarily aborted the pro democracy, anti Zionist and anti corruption popular revolt.       

Scott Thill: 4 Things You Should Know About Your Third Eye

Located in nearly the direct center of the brain, the tiny pine cone shaped pineal gland, which habitually secretes the wondrous neuro-hormone melatonin, while we sleep at night, was once thought to be a vestigial leftover from a lower evolutionary state. Indeed, according to recent research, we could be increasing our chances of contracting chronic illnesses like cancer, by unnecessarily bathing its evenings in artificial light, working night shifts. or staying up too late. By disrupting the pineal gland, and melatonin's chrono biological connection to Earth's rotational 24 hour light and dark cycle, known as its circadian rhythm, we're possibly opening the doors, not to perception, but to disease and disorder. A recently published study from Vanderbilt University has found associations between circadian disruption and heart disease, diabetes and obesity. By hacking what pinealo-philes call our minds third eye, with an always on techno culture, transmitting globally at light speed, we may have disadvantaged our genetic ability to ward off all manner of complicated nightmares. No wonder the pineal gland is a pop culture staple for sci-fi, fantasy and horror fandom, as well as a mass attractor of mystics and mentalists. Its powers to divide, and merge our light and dark lives, only seems to grow, the more we take it seriously. We still lack a complete understanding of the pineal gland, University of Michigan professor of physiology and neurology, Jimo Borjigin, a pioneer in medical visualization of the pineal gland's melatonin secretion, told me. Numerous molecules are found in the pineal, many of which are uniquely found at night, and we do not have a good idea, of what their functions are. The only function, that is established beyond doubt, is the melatonin synthesis and secretion at night, and we do not have a good idea of what their functions are. The only function that is established beyond doubt, is the melatonin synthesis and secretion at night, which is controlled by the central clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, and modulated by light. All else is speculative. Discerning between the science and speculation of the pineal gland hasn't been easy, since long before Rene Descartes called it the principal seat of the soul, after studying it at length nearly four centuries ago.           

James F. Tracy: False Flags, Fake Media Reporting, Deceiving the Public.

Social Engineering and the 21st Century Truth Emergency. On March 9, 1995, Edward Bernays died at the age of 103. His professional endeavors involved seeking to change popular attitudes and behavior, by fundamentally altering social reality. Since he laid the modern groundwork for deceiving
the public, we are for better or worse, living out his legacy today. Several years ago, Project Censored directors Peter Phillips, and Mickey Huff, identified and explained the truth emergency that is among the greatest threats to civil society and human existence. This crisis is manifest in flawed or non existent investigations into 9/11, and other potential false flag events, fraudulent elections, and illegal wars, vis a vis a corporate controlled news media, that fail to adequately inform the public on such matters. While neglecting or obscuring inquiry into such events, and phenomena, major media disparage independent, and often uncredentialed researchers as conspiracy theorists or, more reavealingly, truthers. The truth emergency continues today, ans social engineers like Bernays, long understood the significance of undermining the use of reason, for it is only through reason, that truth may be determined and evaluated. To be sure, individuals and institutions, that have successfully achieved legitimacy in the public mind, are recognized as having a monopoly on the capacity to reason, and are thus perceived as the foremost bearers of truth and knowledge. Through the endorsement of experts, figures perceived as authoritative in their field, the public could easily be persuaded on anything from tobacco use, and water flouridation, to military intervention abroad. Today, reason is defined one dimensionally. Its relationship to truth is largely taken for granted. Yet as Leibniz observed, reason marks our humanity, suggesting a portion of the soul capable of a priori recognition of truth. With this in mind, the modern individual in the mass, has been rendered at least partially soulless through her every day deferral to the powerful persuasive notion, and representation of expertise. However narrowly focused, under the guise of objectivity, the institutionally affiliated journalist, academic, bureaucrat, and corporate spokesperson have become the portals of reason, through which the public is summoned to observe truth. These agents of reason are largely bereft of emotion, moderate in temperament, and speak or write in an unsurprisingly formulaic tone. The narratives they relate and play out, present tragedy, with the expectation of certain closure.         

Alex Kane: Obama Ignores the Ugly, Brutal Reality of

Occupation and Colonization on his Israel Trip. Round after round of tear gas, was shot by a group of Israeli soldiers on a hill overlooking a protest of about 100 Palestinians, in support of a hunger striking prisoner. The smell of rubber tires filled the air, and the fired tear gas made protester's eyes water, as they ran back on a road in the central West Bank town of Beitunia after throwing stones at the soldiers. The demonstrators, most of them young, were there to show their support for Samer Issawi, a Palestinian prisoner, reportedly close to death, after being on hunger strike for well over 200 days, in protest of being held in jail on secret evidence. Issawi's hearing was scheduled to be held at Ofer prison, in the occupied West Bank on March 21, but he was too sick to show up. Hunger striking prisoners, angry youth protesters, living under a nearly 46 year old grinding occupation, and tear gas, and rubber bullets  fired at abandon, that injure and maim Palestinians, this was the part of occupied Palestinian life, that President Obama avoided. The president arrived in Israel on March 20, and promptly set the tenor of his trip, by giving a speech at Ben Gurion Airport, that did not mention the word Palestine or Palestinian. While he did eventually speak of the indignities Palestinians suffer under occupation, during his big speech in Jerusalem, to Israeli youth on March 21, the words, for many Palestinians, rung hollow. Barack Obama's visit skirted the reality of what occupation, and an institutionalized set of unequal rules, based on ethnicity, means to ordinary Palestinians living within Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The big Obama visit to Israel, his first as a sitting president, cemented the unbreakable alliance, as the official slogan for his trip "put it", between the US and Israel, an alliance that comes at the expense of the human rights of Palestinians. The scene at Ben-Gurion Airport, as Obama first arrived, was a sign of things to come. Israeli and American flags, waved everywhere you went. An Israeli military band launched into a song, that said a lot about the trip. The song, "Jerusalem of Gold" echoed through the air, a tune that celebrates the so called unification of Jerusalem under exclusive Israeli rule, a unification that has meant expulsion, and illegal settlements, for the Palestinians, living in what Israel considers its capital, though the international community has not recognized the Israeli annexation.        

Dr. Anthony Hall: Flanagan's Last Stand?

Decoding the encounter between Professor Tom Flanagan and Idle No More at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta Canada. Professor Tom Flanagan was instrumental in mentoring, grooming and handling Steven Harper, during the most formative stages of the meteoric career of Canada's current prime minister. Professor Flanagan is a US trained political scientist, who was hired by a transplanted Pentagon intelligence expert, to help make Calgary safe for Houston, and Dallas based oil companies in Texas North. Professor Flanagan was politically disowned recently, by many of his former students and associates, including by Stephen Harper, for characterizing the consumption of child pornography, as a victimless crime, that should be met with counseling, rather than incarceration. Professor Flanagan made the comments in response to questions from Aboriginal supporters of the Idle No More movement, who look at the denigration entailed in child pornography through the lens of many of their people's harsh experiences as victims of the child sexual exploitation in Canada's federally funded system of Christian residential schools for Aboriginal youths. On March 13, I devoted a three hour university class to looking at the media coverage, political fallout, historical background, and future implications of Tom Flanagan's controversial presentation two weeks earlier. I did so, as a long serving member of the Arts and Science Faculty at the University of Lethbridge where, on February 27, Professor Flanagan delivered his talk, including the now notorious comment, displaying his libertarian extremism on the subject of child pornography and the law. Professor McCormick and Professor Flanagan, are like minded political scientists, who have applied their academic expertise to helping the transmutation of the Reform Party, and then the Alliance Party, into the governing Conservative Party of Canada. As has been widely reported, the subject of Professor Flanagan's presentation at my school was the Indian Act, a topic in which he and I share considerable professional interest. Over the years, Professor Flanagan and I, have exchanged opposing interpretations on Aboriginal matters in a number of venues, both academic and journalistic. In August of 2000, I reviewed a book by Tom Flanagan's in the Globe and Mail. In the late 1990s, I debated him for an hour on the airwaves of CBC Radio, in an Alberta wide show, known as Wildrose Forum. During this period, I invited my colleague from the Political Science Department at the University of Calgary, to lecture my students, many of them Aboriginal, in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of Lethbridge. This academic unit was the first of its kind to be established in western Canada.