David Swanson: Leaving Afghanistan by Staying!

President Obama has signed an agreement with President Karzai to keep a major US military presence in Afghanistan through the end of 2014, and to allow a significant unspecified presence beyond that date, with no end date stipulated. Obama stresses that no permanent US bases will be involved, but this agreement requires Afghanistan to let US troops use "Afghan" bases. Obama forgot to provide any reason not to withdraw from Afghanistan now, given majority US desire to end the war. Like Newt Gingrich promising to quit campaigning before actually doing so, Obama is promising to leave Afghanistan, but not yet, except that he isn't promising to ever leave at all. The agreement is open-ended. Obama spoke on Tuesday of a transition to Afghan control, but we've heard that talk for a decade. That's not some bright idea that requires two-and-a half more years to develop. Obama talked of fighting al-Qaeda, but the US has not been fighting al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and has admitted for years that there is virtually no al Qaeda presence there. That's not the two-year project, and it's not the reason to remain indefinitely after 2014. The agreement requires that all "entities" involved in a peace process renounce violence, but the Taliban will no more do that while under foreign occupation than the United States will do so while occupying.

Alex Thomas: Martial Law Drills on the Streets of America

ATK, the company now infamous for supplying upwards of 750 million rounds of .40 caliber hollow point ammunition to the US Army. "Alliant Techsystems Inc. has entered into an indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity ("IDIQ") contract worth $266 million with the US Army. Per the contract, the company will supply small caliber ammunition, including 5.56mm, 7.62mm and 50-caliber cartridges. This ammunition will be manufactured in Alliant's Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Missouri. The US Army and the company have jointly invested $276 million in the modernization of the facility. As a result, the company has already been able to scale up the new 5.56mm cartridge production under the Enhanced Performance Round as known to the US Defense "reported Zacks.com. While this order is obviously much less startling than a domestic agency ordering millions of rounds of hollow point ammo, the fact that in 2008 the Pentagon announced plans to deploy a 20,000 strong internal military force inside the United States to be ready by 2011 makes this recent order at least worthy of discussion. In a report published last year by theintelhub.com, this fact was heavily explored. In 2008 The Pentagon announced plans to deploy a 20,000 strong internal troop force inside the continental United States (CONUS) that was set to be trained by 2011, thus dovetailing into the current troop and equipment movements around the country reported by truckers as well as many more troop sightings by everyday citizens. This plan directly correlates with a 2009, Army funded, Rand Corporation study that called for an internal United States police force to combat civil unrest. When you add the above facts with the recent photo of the US Army training inside neighborhoods in what can only be described as plans to take on the American people as well as the Infowars report on Army reeducation camps in America, a startling picture emerges!

Eddie Wrenn: The Ancient Egyptians Understood the Demon Star

Startling evidence suggests the ancient Egyptians understood the inner mechanics of a binary star system, spinning through our skies 93 light years away, more than 3,200 years ago. Not only that, their specific calculations have helped support a scientific line of inquiry, which only emerged just a few years ago. The binary system, two stars which rotate around each other, was first noted in modern astronomy by a John Goodricke, back in 1783. He spotted how Algol, also known as the Demon Star, appeared to decrease in brightness for a few hours every 2.87 days, and was the first to theorize that this was two stars blocking each other's light in relation to Earth. Or we thought he was the first, it turns out the Egyptians apparently had all this figured out 3,000 years earlier. The Egyptians were huge star-gazers, taking copious and accurate notes about changes in the heavens, and using these to form predictions about lucky and unlucky parts of the day. When Finnish researchers studied the Cairo Calendar, a badly-damaged but readable calendar highlighting the good and bad days of the year in 1200BC, they came to some startling observations. For the Egyptians not only made observations, they made conclusions and calculations to figure out the inner mechanisms of the stars for their charts. Two cycles were spotted in the Cairo Calendar. One lasted 29.6 days, almost exactly that of the lunar cycle. And the other was 2.85 days, which researchers from the University of Helsinki in Finland ascribe to the Algol system.

Anjali Dalal: CISPA: Steamrolling Civil Liberties

After a flurry of last minute amendments last week, the House unexpectedly passed CISPA on Thursday evening. A week ago, I described my concerns with the version of the bill that made it out of the House Committee on Intelligence. In the intervening week, there was a considerable outcry around the bill, led in part by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Center for Democracy and Technology. Learning their lesson from SOPA, the House decided to invite civil liberties constituencies to the table so as to avoid having to witness another implosion of a major legislative goal. As a result, a number of amendments were introduced that began to address some of the most egregious parts of the bill, and, in response, some members of the civil liberties community decided to withhold further, vocal opposition. Then, on Thursday evening, it all fell apart. As Josh Smith at the National Journal described, the CISPA that was passed by the House on Thursday didn't reflect this negotiation: The Center for Democracy and Technology and the Constitution Project never really dropped objections to the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, but after discussions with the bill's sponsors, the groups said on April 24 they would not actively oppose the bill and focus on amendments instead. But on April 25, the House Rules Committee shot down 22 of 43 submitted amendments to the bill, known as CISPA. All but one Republican amendments were made in order, while four out of 19 Democratic amendments and four with 10 bipartisan support made the cut. Five amendments were withdrawn. Unhappy with this outcome, the civil liberties groups are doubling down their efforts for the next stage of this battle.

Robert Scheer: Faking Concern for the Chinese Masses!

Let's stop jacking the Chinese around. We do not care a whit now, nor have we ever cared, about their human rights or any other aspect of their lives as long as they satiate our unbridled appetites. To pretend otherwise is to deny centuries of exploitative history in which the West drugged the Middle Kingdom and plundered it for its resources and cheap labor while obliterating any sign of popular resistance to our imperial sway. From the Opium Wars to the contemplation of using nuclear weapons to bomb China back to the Stone Age, because of our differences with it over Korea and Vietnam, the response of the West has been one of brute intimidation. Never have we been willing to acknowledge that China, for all its immense contradictions, upheavals, sufferings and errant ways, represents the most complex and impressive example of national history. Instead we intrude upon China in fitful moments of pique or treat it as a plaything. Who owns China? That was the question that marked the first period of US involvement, when we joined other Western imperialists in carving up China into economic zones. And then came the bitter argument in the US in the late 1940's and the '50s about "Who lost China?" Now Americans find themselves preoccupied with how best to exploit China's amazing economic prowess while feigning interest in the well-being of its people. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton performed the expected diplomatic dance around the latest flare-up of pretend concern, involving a blind lawyer suddenly made world-famous when he escaped from house arrest in rural China. The fact that Chen Guangcheng was targeted by Chinese authorities because of his opposition to his nation's oppressive population control policies added the United States' "pro-life" lobby to the army of morally subjective China watchers.

Michel Chossudovsky: Who was Osama? Who is Obama?

While the President and Commander in Chief of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama "celebrates" the first anniversary of the "alleged" death of bin Laden, the substantive issue as to Who Was Osama bin Laden remains unheralded. Remarks by President Obama in Address to the Nation from Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. Through lies and fabrications, president Obama's carefully scripted speech upholds a world of total fantasy, in which "bad guys" are lurking and "plotting acts of terror" Islamic "jihadists" are lurking and "plotting acts of terror" Islamic "jihadists" are said to be threatening Western civilization. Each and every statement in Obama's 1st speech at Bagram Air Force base regarding the role of Al Qaeda is a fabrication: It was here, in Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden established a safe haven for his terrorist organization. (Osama was recruited by the CIA, Al Qaeda was set up with the support of the CIA. His safe haven was protected by US intelligence.) It was here, in Afghanistan, where al Qaeda brought new recruits, trained them, and plotted acts of terror. The Mujahideen were recruited and trained by the CIA. America's ally Saudi Arabia financed the Wahabbi Coranic schools. Ronald Reagan praised the Mujahiddeen as "Freedom Fighters". Unknown to the American public, the US spread the teachings of the Islamic jihad in textbooks "Made in America", developed at the University of Nebraska. It was here, from within these borders, that al Qaeda launched the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 innocent men, women and children. (Obama is referring to the 9/11 attacks. To this date there is no evidence that Al Qaeda was involved. Moreover, confirmed by CBS News, on September 10, 2001 Osama bin Laden had been admitted to a Pakistani military hospital in Rawalpindi courtesy of America's ally Pakistan. Did he coordinate the 9/11 attacks from his hospital bed?  

David Swanson: Is Staying in Afghanistan OK?

President Obama has signed an agreement with President Karzai to keep a major US military presence in Afghanistan, currently about three times the size that Obama began with, through the end of 2014, and to allow a significant unspecified presence beyond that date, with no end date stipulated. Obama stresses that no permanent US troops use "Afghan" bases. Obama forgot to provide any reason not to withdraw from Afghanistan now, given majority US desire to end the war. Like Newt Gingrich promising to quit campaigning before actually doing so, Obama is promising to leave Afghanistan, but not yet, except that he isn't promising to ever leave at all. The "agreement" is open-ended. Obama spoke recently of a transition to Afghan control, but we've heard that talk for a decade. That's not some new bright idea that requires two-and-a-half more years to develop. Obama talked of fighting al Qaeda, but the US has not been fighting al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and has admitted for years that there is no al Qaeda presence there. That's not the two-year project, ad it's not the reason to remain indefinitely after 2014. The agreement requires that all "entities" involved in a peace process renounce violence, but the Taliban will no more do that while under foreign occupation than the United States will do so while occupying. This is not a serious plan to leave! Nor is it a plan based on Afghan sovereignty, numerous claims to the contrary notwithstanding. This is a treaty for more years of war, on the model of the Bush-Maliki treaty for Iraq, but with the difference that theirs included an end date!