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World News from a Variety of Media Sources
5 Million Iraqis Killed, Maimed, Tortured, Displaced Posted: Thursday, July 8, 2010
¤ Censorship and cover-up in the Gulf oil disaster The Obama administration has intensified its cover-up of the BP oil disaster. On July 1 it issued an order barring the public and the news media from coming within 65 feet of clean-up operations without permission from the Coast Guard. The transparent aim of the order, which purports to protect the safety of clean-up workers, is to prevent the population from viewing the devastation wrought by the BP oil blowout.
¤ Some Thoughts on "Patriotism" Written on July 4th Most important thought: I'm sick and tired of this thing called "patriotism". The Japanese pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor were being patriotic. The German people who supported Hitler and his conquests were being patriotic, fighting for the Fatherland. All the Latin American military dictators who overthrew democratically-elected governments and routinely tortured people were being patriotic — saving their beloved country from "communism".
¤ Barack Obama: Are we moving from the Slave to the Nuclear Holocaust? In Venezuela we are seriously studying the latest reflections and warnings of Fidel Castro. We are asking whether we are moving from the catastrophic oil leaks in the Gulf of Mexico to the nuclear broil, to the Nuclear Holocaust in the Middle East, to the next World War. In all these capitalist developments, Karl Marx had the first theoretical word, will the world proletariat have the last praxical word? At last, are the global workers wakening up from their slumber?
¤ World Cup 2010: Bend It Like Imperialism! "These stadiums are encased in a 'Ring of Steel' to protect audiences from 'unpatriotic citizens' of South Africa." Today, June 16, marks the 34th anniversary of the South African Soweto uprising where thousands of African youth took to the streets and where hundreds would die at the hands of the South African police and military. Today, June 16, also marks the first anniversary of that uprising to take place during the first ever World Cup on the African continent.
¤ Death Squad Terror in Honduras In advance and thereafter, Washington choreographed the entire process, blamed Zelaya for his illegal removal, opposed his return, backed the coup d'etat regime and sham November 2009 election under martial law, elevating fascist Porfirio (Pepe) Lobo Sosa to the presidency on January 27, 2010, now the Obama administration's man in Honduras, succeeding interim leader, Roberto Micheletti.
¤ Heinonen Pushed Dubious Iran Nuclear Weapons Intel Olli Heinonen, the Finnish nuclear engineer who resigned Thursday after five years as deputy director for safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was the driving force in turning that agency into a mechanism to support U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran.
¤ China denies military exercise aimed at U.S. China denied on Tuesday media reports that an artillery drill in the East China Sea was in response to a planned military exercise between South Korea and the United States.
¤ Russia media slams 'unconvincing' spy scandal Russian media on Wednesday disparaged US claims of a Russian spy ring, saying the scandal was an unconvincing sham aimed at derailing the reset in relations between Moscow and Washington. "The highest-profile Russia spy scandal in the United States looks like the most unconvincing and most unnecessary," said the leading broadsheet daily Kommersant.
¤ 5 Million Iraqis Killed, Maimed, Tortured, Displaced In 1970 a Lao villager who had survived five years of U.S. bombing wrote: "In reality, whatever happens, it is only the innocent who suffer. And as for the others, do they know all the unimaginable things happening in this war? Do they?" Do we? And if we did know about the innocent men, women and children our leaders kill, would it matter? Does it matter that those who justified the Iraqi invasion in the name of the people of Iraq have largely ignored their unimaginable suffering under U.S. occupation, as more than 5 million civilians have been murdered, maimed, made homeless, unjustly imprisoned and tortured -- and millions more impoverished?
Afghanistan: The Longest Lost War Posted: Saturday, June 26, 2010
¤ Gaza Starves More Slowly As Israel this week declared the “easing” of the four-year blockade of Gaza, an official explained the new guiding principle: “Civilian goods for civilian people.” The severe and apparently arbitrary restrictions on foodstuffs entering the enclave – coriander bad, cinnamon good – will finally end, we are told. Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants will have all the coriander they want.
¤ Speaker Pelosi, More War Funding Next Week Is No 'Emergency' Let us be perfectly clear, as President Obama might say. There is no "emergency" requiring the House to throw another $33 billion into our increasingly bloody and pointless occupation of Afghanistan before we all go off to celebrate the anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from foreign occupation.
¤ Memo To Barack Obama: Don't just change generals, change course. Barack, Barack, Barack. Don't just change generals, change course. After changing generals you made a point of "reassuring" everyone that the policy remained the same. Why? All you are doing now is wasting lives, American lives and Afghan lives. And you are wasting wasting money -- trillions of dollars -- money we don't have, money we have to borrow, money desperately needed by your own citizens, your own institutions, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, jobs.
¤ NASA Pinpoints Quake Induced Changes To Earth Radar images show that an April earthquake near the Mexico-California border caused the Earth's surface to move 31 inches downward and to the south.
¤ BP Boss Heckled Then 'Stonewalls' US Panel BP head Tony Hayward was first heckled by a protester and then accused of "stonewalling" US lawmakers at a tense hearing investigating the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
¤ Echoes of Vietnam: Washington's False Promise in Afghanistan One of the predominant rationales put forth by US civilian and military officials regarding the nature of the insurgency categorized as the Taliban in Afghanistan is that their support is derived from coercion. Pronouncements from these officials stating this belief as objective truth are obediently parroted in media reports and repeated by politicians.
Fidel Castro claims Obama lives in fantasy world Posted: Thursday, June 10, 2010
¤ Lift the Siege of Gaza President Obama should end his and his country's shameful silence over the inhumane blockade of Gaza that is denying 1.5 million beleaguered people the basic necessities of a decent life.
¤ Fidel Castro claims Obama lives in fantasy world Fidel Castro speculated Wednesday that a nuclear strike on Iran might help President Barack Obama win a second term in the White House and also suggested the United States could attack North Korea.
¤ Cumbria shooting spree: interactive timeline Twelve people were killed when taxi driver Derrick Bird went on a shooting spree in Cumbria before taking his own life. Here is how events unfolded
¤ Nigeria's Agony Dwarfs the Gulf Oil Spill The Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet the people who live in the Niger delta have had to live with environmental catastrophes for decades
¤ Israel recoils as US backs nuclear move The resolution adopted by the United Nations on Friday calls on Israel to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and urges it to open its facilities to inspection.
¤ Killing Children: From Ghazi to Detroit In Iraq, the news that families were having the doors to their houses kicked in by heavily armed US forces who then proceeded to awaken everybody in the house, overturn their bedding and other belongings and arrest the household's menfolk became commonplace for several years following the US invasion of that country. All too often, women and children were killed by US troops during these raids.
¤ Capitalism Without Capital Volatility is back and stocks have started zigzagging wildly again. This time the catalyst is Greece, but tomorrow it could be something else. The problem is there's too much leverage in the system, and that's generating uncertainty about the true condition of the economy. For a long time, leverage wasn't an issue, because there was enough liquidity to keep things bobbing along smoothly. But that changed when Lehman Bros. filed for bankruptcy and non-bank funding began to shut down.
¤ Bill for Afghan War Could Run into the Trillions The U.S. Senate is moving forward with a 59-billion-dollar spending bill, of which 33.5 billion dollars would be allocated for the war in Afghanistan. However, some experts here in Washington are raising concerns that the war may be unwinnable and that the money being spent on military operations in Afghanistan could be better spent.
¤ Itching to Fight Another Muslim Enemy If you read the major American newspapers or watch the propaganda on cable TV, it’s pretty clear that the U.S. foreign policy Establishment is again spoiling for a fight, this time in Iran. Just as Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was the designated target of American hate in 2002 and 2003, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is playing that role now. Back then, any event in Iraq was cast in the harshest possible light; today, the same is done with Iran.
¤ Assassinating US Muslim Cleric is Illegal, Immoral and Unwise Agents of the United States are openly trying to assassinate Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen, while he is in hiding in Yemen. Despite what the apologists for assassination argue this is illegal, immoral and unwise. Assassinating Awlaki in the US would be murder, a capital crime, punishable by life in prison or even the death penalty. Morally, few would argue that agents of the FBI or the CIA could murder the cleric in the US. If it is illegal and immoral to kill a Muslim cleric in the US why would it be legal, moral or wise to do so in Yemen?
¤ Hillary Clinton's Dangerous Defense of Afghan Women Forgive my cynicism but we abandoned Afghan women many years ago, and greatly exacerbated their plight when we cynically used them as a justification to destroy their country and our continued military presence is only making things worse. This latest statement from Clinton reads like yet another ploy to use the lives of Afghan women as an excuse-this time for not talking to the Taliban. While I am in no way saying that we should condone the Taliban's misogyny, our military presence is not the key to addressing that issue. In fact it is likely making matters worse.
New Colonialism: Pentagon carves Africa into Military Zones Posted: Sunday, May 9, 2010
¤ New Colonialism: Pentagon carves Africa into Military Zones "The U.S. is not dragging almost every nation in Africa into its military network because of altruism or concerns for the security of the continent's people. AFRICOM's function is that of every predatory military power: The threat and use of armed violence to gain economic and geopolitical advantages."
¤ Iran, China and Israel's Weapons of Mass Disruption There were two major nuclear non-proliferation conferences in April, one in Washington (President Barack Obama's Nuclear Security Summit) and one in Tehran (International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation). A third, aka the Big One - the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference held in New York City under the auspices of the United Nations - is now taking place in New York.
Did You Hear the Joke About the Predator Drone That Bombed? For people in Pakistan, where most of the drones are being used, the joke lost something in translation. According to Pakistani journalist Khawar Rizvi, few Pakistanis have ever heard of the Jonas Brothers or understood the reference to the President's daughters. "But one thing we do know: There's nothing funny about predator drones," said Rizvi. "They've killed hundreds of civilians and caused so much suffering in Pakistan. And that's no laughing matter."
¤ You Drill, You Spill Sobering, is it not, to realize that the possible survival of a huge oil company, of several billion shrimp, assorted species of fish and birds, not to mention avoidance of a near lethal lurch in the fortunes of Louisiana’s fishing and ocean rec industries and the future of offshore drilling up the Atlantic coast could depend on a feat as tricky as rolling a condom on the end of a string onto the penis of a man at street level by remote control from the top of the Empire State Building.
¤ A Fantasy "No salvation will come from Barack Obama. The immensely powerful pro-Israel lobby will crush any attempt of his to exert pressure on Israel. Obama has already capitulated to Netanyahu, and he will continue to do so in the future....The real problem is that most Israelis do not believe that peace is possible. Dozens of years of propaganda have convinced them that “we have no partner for peace”. Events on the ground (as seen through Israeli eyes) have confirmed this view. If this perception is dissolved, everything is possible."
¤ When Will the Real Terrorists Stand Up? I propose President Obama end the war against terrorism and admit the phrase means “Muslims should scare you!” For example, the media recently showed a documentary film on Timothy McVeigh (April 19, Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC) that psychoanalyzed him. What happened in his past that provoked him to punish the US government and then want the government execute him?
¤ Beginning of the end for Afghan war? The war has dragged on long after the public turned against it – but a rebellion in the US Congress could speed our exit
¤ Graca Machel: Britain 'stop being big brother' Graca Machel has condemned Britain for taking a patronising "big brother" attitude to its former colonies, the Guardian newspaper reports.
¤ Recent Media Coverage of Cuba: Selective Commendation, Selective Indignation The January 2010 earthquake in Haiti caused some 230,000 deaths, left 1.5 million homeless, and has directly affected 3 million Haitians—1/3 of the population. On March 31, representatives of over 50 governments and international organizations gathered at the United Nations Haiti Donor Conference to pledge long-term assistance for the rebuilding of Haiti.
¤ It's Now or Never: Hands Off Mother Earth! The Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth recently held in Cochabamba, Bolivia, by the World's People - as opposed to the world's transnational corporations and their executive branches or 'Governments of, by and for the Elites' - has concluded with The People's Agreement on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (1).
¤ The Guantanamo Deception Colonel Lawrence B. Wilkerson, Chief of Staff to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, provided shocking new testimony from inside the Bush Administration that hundreds of the men jailed at Guantanamo were innocent, the top people in the Bush Administration knew full well they were innocent, and that information was kept from the public.
America and the Dictators Posted: Sunday, April 18, 2010
¤ China Will Do What It Wants The United States and China seem to have reached an agreement with regard to the exchange rate between their two currencies. The agreement is that the U.S. government will stop yelling about it, and China will do whatever it wants to do, which will probably include some modest rise in the renminbi some time in the near future.
¤ Big Coal; BigLies The worship of money is the will of God according to Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy Company that owns and operates the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia where 29 miners were killed on April 5 in a mining explosion. Blankenship is a member of the US Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and a rabid, right-wing Republican. Blankenship calls public officials concerned about climate change "greeniacs", says “greeniacs are taking over the world,” and that Al Gore, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are “crazy”. He accuses his critics of communism and atheism.
¤ The Cover-Ups That Exploded The Pentagon is reeling after two lethal episodes uncovered by diligent journalism show trigger-happy U.S. Army helicopter pilots and U.S. Special Forces slaughtering civilians, then seeking to cover up their crimes. The worldwide web was transfixed on Monday when Wikileaks put up on YouTube a 38-minute video, along with a 17-minute edited version, taken from a U.S. Army Apache helicopter, one of two firing on a group of Iraqis in Baghdad at a street corner in July of 2007. Twelve civilians died, including a Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and a Reuters driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40.
¤ Havana Homegrown: Inside Cuba's Urban Agriculture Revolution Video Unlike with most people in the US and other wealthy countries, growing their own and doing it organically were not really choices for Cubans: they did it to survive. Or to put it more flippantly, when life gave the Cubans limes (mint and rum), they decided to make mojitos.
