Michel Chossudovsky: Isreal's War Plans to Attack Iran

Israel's Channel 10 suggests, in no uncertain terms, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to attack Iran before the US elections and that the time for action is getting closer. Israel is now closer than ever to a strike designed to thwart Iran's nuclear drive. This timely report suggests that Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak firmly believe that President Obama would have no choice but to give backing for an Israeli attack, were it to be waged before the November presidential elections. The TV stations military reporter Alon Ben David, who earlier this year was given extensive access to the Israel Air Force as it trained for a possible attack, reported that, since upgraded sanctions against Iran have failed to force a suspension of the Iranian nuclear program in the past two months. From the prime minister's point of view, the time for action is getting ever closer. Asked by the news anchor in the Hebrew language TV report how close Israel now was to a decision and perhaps an attack, Ben David said: "It appears that we are closer than ever." He said it seemed that Netanyahu was not waiting for a much discussed possible meeting with US President Barack Obama, after the UN General Assembly gathering in New York late next month indeed. Its not clear that there will be a meeting. In any case, said Ben David, I doubt Obama could say anything that would convince Netanyahu to delay a possible attack.  There is a considerable opposition to an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, the report noted with President Shimon Peres, the army's chief of the General Staff and top generals, the intelligence community, opposition leader Shaul Mofaz, and of course the Americans all lined up against Israeli action at this stage. But, noted Ben David, it is the Israeli government that would have to take the decision, and there Netanyahu is almost guaranteed a majority. Other Hebrew media reports on Tuesday also said Netanyahu is almost guaranteed a majority. Other Hebrew reports on Tuesday also said Natanyahu had dispatched a senior official, National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror, to update the elderly spiritual leader of the Shas ultra Orthodox coalition party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, on the status of the Iranian nuclear program, in order to win Shas government ministers support for an attack.

Walter Brash: RomneyTax Return Provides a Window to His Soul.

When a craven of buffoons and bigots, disguised in the bodies of "Birthers" figured that anyone with dark skin and a foreign name had to be born outside the US, Barack Obama provided a birth certificate: Not just the usual short form, but a state certified copy of the long form that detailed he was born in Hawaii, which some birthers apparently think is a foreign country, to a mother who was a natural born US citizen. That, of course, was not enough for the whack adoodles who claimed, among other things, that the President's birth certificate was altered or forged. All of their claims have been debunked by scientific evidence. Of course, they produced their own poorly forged birth certificate that they said proved President Obama was born in Kenya. In February, billionaire Donald Trump, an unabashed Birther, stood next to multi-millionaire Mitt Romney in a Las-Vegas casino and endorsed him for the Republican nomination. A few months earlier, Trump had gotten significant face time in the media, while flirting with the idea of running for the presidency while whining about Romney. "He'd buy companies. He'd close companies. He'd get rid of jobs," Trump crowed, but now, with Romney running well ahead in the primary contests, Trump was trying to be relevant and stay in the political spotlight. Romney, for his part, smiled and said nothing to suggest that Trump could be wrong about pursuing the birther argument. Trying to have everyone like him, one of the most unlikable presidential candidates refused to repudiate Trump's birther views. Unlike Barack Obama, Mitt Romney does have a secret. This one is buried within what he either did or did not report to the IRS. It's traditional, but not required, that presidential nominees release copies of their tax returns.   

Joshua Holland: Why Our National Press Corps is Failing the Public!

It's hard to imagine a greater irony than our political press, obsessed as it is with process stories, dubiously sourced rumors and trivial fluff, lamenting the fact that we can't have a "serious national debate." Consider what may be the funniest lede in this cycle so far: "The elevated presidential campaign of ideas, fleetingly achieved after months of mudslinging, died Tuesday," wrote Reid Epstein. "It was three days old." Epstein went on to catalog all of the mean things the two campaigns were saying about each other, as if this is an election year or something. But what makes that so hilarious is that Epstein's  piece appeared in Politico exactly two days after the rag ran a piece titled "Forget the budget: Paul Ryan is hot!" and just two days before a penetrating analysis headlined, "Fit for office: Candidates in best shape ever." Politico is also slapping together a quickie e book about how the Obama campaign is "roiled in turmoil," which is just a campaign classic that never gets stale. We can't have serious debates in this country, because we don't have a news media that offers us serious debates. Rather than dig into the candidates' claims, we get he said, she said drivel, and doses of whatever conventional wisdom is flying around the Beltway. We get dueling campaign "narratives" rather than a serious look at issues of substance, which seem to bore most campaign reporters. That has long been the case, but we appear to have entered a new environment, one that Dave Roberts of Grist described as an era of "post truth politics" "a political culture in which politics, public opinion and media narratives have become almost entirely disconnected from policy, the substance of legislation." The Romney Ryan campaign appears to have embraced this reality, running a campaign that is unprecedented in its mendacity.

Finian Cunningham: Syria at the Mercy of Ministers of Terrorism!

Syria at the Mercy of the West's "Ministers of Terrorism" Foreign Policy by Terrorists and Thugs in High Office. Murder, sabotage, bribery, contract killings, and that's just the behavior of Western political leaders and their Arab allies. Forget the fancy titles, manners and clothes, ongoing violence in Syria shows that the foreign policy of these powers is being conducted by terrorists and thugs in high offices, which lets one glimpse what level of barbarity is being perpetrated by the Western terror army, running amok in the streets and villages of Syria. The latest display of criminality in high office is the call by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius for the smashing of Syria and the killing of the president, Bashar al-Assad. The words may have been spoken with an eloquent French accent, but their practical meaning has all the savagery of cold blooded bludgeoning. What we are seeing is a descent into barbarism, and an open embrace of international lawlessness, by the same governments that appoint themselves to lecture the rest of the world on the principles of democracy and human rights. Reports and videos, showing that the Western backed mercenaries of the so called "Free Syrian Army" are bolstered by al-Qaeda brigades and other terrorists,have been greeted with barely veiled glee in Washington and European capitals. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice have pointedly refused to condemn the surge in bombing atrocities across Syria, that have accompanied the influx of terrorists into the country over recent months. Rice has even made statements, suggesting that more such atrocities will follow, until the Syrian president does what her government demands and surrenders office. In mafia terminology, its called "making an offer he can't refuse."

Joshua Holland: The Conservative Psyche!

How ordinary people come to embrace Paul Ryan's Cruelty. Earlier this year, Democratic operatives looking for the best way to define Mitt Romney discovered something interesting about Paul Ryan's budget. The New York Times reported that when the details of his proposals were run past focus groups, they found that the plan is so cruel that voters "simply refused to believe any politician would do such a thing." In addition to phasing out the Earned Income Tax Credit that keeps millions of American families above the poverty line, and cutting funding for children's health care in half, Jonathan Cohn described the "America that Paul Ryon envisions" like this: Many millions of working age Americans would lose health insurance. Senior citizens would anguish over whether to pay their rent or their medical bills, in a way they haven't since the 1960s. Government would be so starved of resources that, by 2050, it wouldn't have enough money for core functions like food inspections and highway maintenance. Ryan's "road-map" may be the least serious budget plan ever to emerge in Washington, but it is reflective of how far to the right the GOP has moved in recent years. According to a recent study of public attitudes conducted by the Pew Research Center, in 1987, 62 percent of Republicans said "the government should take care of people who cannot take care of themselves," but that number has now dropped to just 40 percent. That attitude was on display during a GOP primary debate last fall, when moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Ron Paul what fate should befall a healthy person without health insurance, who finds himself suddenly facing a catastrophic illness. "Congressman," Blitzer pressed after Paul sidestepped the question, "are you saying that society should just let him die?" Before Paul had a chance to respond, the audience erupted in cheers, with some shouting, "yeah!"

Richard Silverstein: Netanyahu's Secret War Plan to Attack Iran

In the past few days, I received an Israeli briefing document outlining Israel's war plans against Iran. The document was passed to me by a high level Israeli source, who received it from an IDF officer. My source, in fact, wrote to me that normally he would not leak this sort of document, but: These are not normal times. I'm afraid Bibi and Barak are dead serious. The reason they leaked it is to expose the arguments and plans advanced by the Bibi-Barak two headed warrior. Neither the IDF leaker, my source, nor virtually any senior military or intelligence officer wants this war. While whoever wrote this briefing paper had use of IDF and intelligence data, I don't believe the IDF wrote it. It feels more likely it came from the shop of national security adviser Yaakov Amidror, a former general, settler true believer and Bibi confidant. It could also have been produced by Defense Minister Barak, another pro-war booster. I've translated the document from Hebrew with the help of Dena Shunra. Before laying out the document, I wanted to place it in context. If you've been reading this blog, you'll know that after Bibis IDF service, he became the marketing director for a furniture company. Recent revelations have suggested that he may have also served in some capacity either formally or informally in the Mossad during that period. This document is a more sophisticated version of selling bedroom sets and three piece sectionals. The only difference is that this marketing effort could lead to the death of thousands. This is Bibis pitch for war. Its purpose is to be used in meetings with members of the Shminiya, the eight member security cabinet which currently finds a 4-3 majority opposed to an Iran strike. Bibi uses this sales pitch to persuade the recalcitrant ministers of the cool, clean, refreshing taste of war. My source informs me that it has also been shared in confidence with selected journalists who are in the trusted inner media circle. This is Shock and Awe, Israeli-style.

Dr. Ilya Sandra Perlingieri: Where Do We Want to Go?

We are now at a grave planetary crossroad. Individually, we are also at potentially and dramatically life-changing times. Baseball legend Yogi Berra used to say: "When you get to the fork in the road, take it." So, where do we truly want to go? Well, now we have two choices. Collectively, as wrecked societies and battered cultures that have been created by insider elites, wealthy bankers and their government cohorts, our "strings" have been pulled to conform and dance to rigged criminal tunes. This is all for the benefit of a dark cabal, a new world disorder. It is all based on harm and destruction. Individually, most humans have bought into rigged news and a Western culture, based on fear and chronic violence. The now illegal "perpetual" war machine, funded by tax payer money and black ops, is the only thing that "works". Killing is thriving, while real health care, education, elder care, and infra structure,with thousands of crumbling bridges and wrecked roads, are all trashed. Those in power, whether at local, state, or federal level are gutting every social service to supposedly balance the budget. Any "public" agency no longer works for us. This actually funds war and killing. These criminals are not working for us. They've been paid off or threatened. Either way, no one in public office is working for "we, the people." A new report on the FDA's internal spying on their staff is just the latest example of their being co-opted by the pharmaceutical corporations. The corruption and stench of criminality is so pervasive throughout all governments, that it is not fixable in its present state. This entire system is bereft of any moral or ethical values. It far surpasses the days of Caligula and ancient Rome. Further, the corporate controlled media is part of the news-lies "reported" to us. It is all hype and planned drivel to a dumbed-down, brain damaged populace. Cell phones, "Smart" Meters, and other EMF/RF invisible harm, plus prescription mind altering drugs and other chemicals we breathe are wrecking our ability to think clearly.