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Focus: Yemen and Saudi Arabia - Mar 7, 2016
VIDEO: Pope Francis prays for martyrs of Yemen attack - Reuters.com
Yemeni officials blame Islamic State for killing four nuns, kidnapping priest - UPI.com
UN reports sharp rise in civilian casualties in Yemen - VOA
U.N. warns against slowing recent increase in aid flow to Yemen - Business Insider
Yemen's food crisis deepens as banks cut credit for shipments - Reuters
Saudi Arabia rejects UN Security Council action on Yemen aid crisis - Yahoo News
Rights group: Saudi Arabia used U.S. cluster bombs in civilian areas - CNNPolitics.com
European Parliament calls for Saudi arms embargo over Yemen bombing - Reuters
ARCHIVE: EU criticises British arms sales to Saudi Arabia - The Guardian
REPORT: Saudi Arabia: Background and U.S. Relations - Congressional Research Service
Report: Arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Qatar almost triple in four years - Middle East Eye
Yemen's ousted president is still a stumbling block for Saudis - Bloomberg Business
To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)
Whatever its motive, Apple’s on the right side...so far: Apple Champions Privacy; Government Seeks to Trash It
By Alfredo Lopez
Truth can be stranger than fiction...or at least more surprising. Apple Computer is the current champion of privacy against U.S. government attempts to expand its spying on us. The company, a frequent NSA and FBI collaborator in the past, finds itself in the strange position of confronting a federal court order to dislodge its iPhone security system, an action Apple insists will cripple encryption as a privacy-protection measure.
Scalia, Shmalia: Corporate Front Groups Helped Win Supreme Court Stay of Obama Clean Power Plan
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Supreme Court Junket King Scalia Dies While Vacationing with Wealthy Patrons at Private West Texas Getaway
By Dave Lindorff
It’s appropriate that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died at a luxury resort while freeloading as the guest of thus far unidentified wealthy sponsors as one of 40 guests at a private quail-hunting vacation party.
Duplicitous diplomacy: Ambassador Reflects on American Respect for Real Democracy
By Linn Washington, Jr.
Mohamed Yeslem Beisat, an ambassador for the Western Sahara, knew he faced a serious uphill struggle when began his position in Washington, D.C. years ago as the representative for his country that is located on the northwest coast of Africa.
"Liquid Freedom": First Company to Export US Crude Oil Now Exporting Iran's Oil
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Army of Lobbyists Push LNG Exports, Methane Hydrates, Coal in Senate Energy Bill
Cros-Posted from DeSmogBlog
He’s the best, but is he all we need?: The ‘Bern’ and the Internet
By Alfredo Lopez
Bernie Sanders' stunning success in the campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination, highlighted by what is effectively a victory in the Iowa caucuses this past Monday, provokes serious thinking about what a Sanders presidency would look like.
Banana Republic: U.S. Fracking Pioneer Aubrey McClendon Bringing Practice to Argentina
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Aubrey McClendon, the embattled former CEO and co-founder of Chesapeake Energy, has announced his entrance into Argentina to begin hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") in the country's Vaca Muerta Shale basin.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Leaked EPA Document Showing Water Contamination Could Be Smoking Gun in Federal Lawsuit
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
A PowerPoint presentation obtained from a source and published by DeSmog in August 2013 has made its way into a major hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") related legal case, which is set to go to trial soon in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Being Where I Really Need to Be
By Joy First
Friday January 8 marked another day of flying to Washington, DC for a week of activism – again. I was feeling sad leaving my family for a week and not looking forward to what I knew I was going to have to do in speaking out against the crimes of our government.
While in DC I stayed with my dear friend Malachy and his family and that is always a comfort to be in their home. Each day was filled with activist work. On Saturday we vigiled against drones at the CIA and I had the opportunity to share what we are doing at Volk Field in Wisconsin where we have been holding monthly vigils against drones for over four years, along with occasional nonviolent direct actions risking arrest. On Sunday we met with a doctor who is the head of Physicians for Social Responsibility in the DC area. He would like to engage more doctors from that organization in civil resistance. He thinks it is a critical time for more people to take to the streets and work for peace and justice.
On Monday we went to the White House where our friends from Witness Against Torture were holding their annual vigil marking 14 years since the first men were imprisoned and tortured in Guantanamo. It was a moving vigil as about 20 activists in orange jumpsuits and black hoods walked into the picture postcard area in front of the White House. As the police began pushing the rest of us back to the sidewalk in Lafayette Park I resisted and held my ground as long as possible. For over an hour, our voices were raised together as we sang:
We hear a beautiful sound
It is the breaking of chains
We see a path of hope
We have found the way
Let them go home
Let them go home
Let them go home
Let them go today
Eventually those who had been standing in the picture postcard area joined us and we gathered in a circle in the street again and ended the vigil. A number of men have recently been released from Guantanamo after 14 years of false imprisonment and torture, but Obama could have released them when he became president seven years ago, cutting in half their time there.
As we stayed busy for several days, Tuesday January 12 was weighing heavily on my mind and I was anxiously waiting for that day when the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR) was planning a nonviolent direct action. On January 12, the day Obama was going to give us his State of the Union address we were going to deliver a petition to the U.S. Capitol on the “Real State of the Union” outlining what was really going on, along with ideas for solutions. We also had a list of war crimes that had been committed by our government that we wanted to share.
I woke up early on Tuesday morning. Malachy and I had a big breakfast knowing we may not eat again for a long time. We took the Metro to town and as we walked by the Capitol we scoped it out, paying attention to where we might want to go to deliver the petition, and noticing the police – how many there were and where they were. We met up with Max and Janice and the four of us looked at the situation to get a better sense of how the action could unfold.
We gathered together at 11:00 am at a church near the Capitol. It always feels so good to great my old friends and comrades in the struggle. I have been risking arrest with many of them for over ten years now.
I was helping David Barrows stretch out his banner “The Real State of the Union” on wooden poles when Malachy came over and told us that he just heard that Tim Chadwick had died. Tim had been a regular at NCNR actions for many years, but I had not seen him for a couple of years. I was shocked and deeply saddened to hear this news. Tim was an amazing activist and never gave up on trying to change the world, and we all knew that we had to continue with our action for the day in his honor.
The group who was going to risk arrest met together in a corner of the church hall to do final planning for the action. We decided we would attempt to deliver the petition to Joe Biden, president of the Senate, as well as vice-president of Obama’s administration. After the planning meeting, we all gathered together for an open mic where we were inspired hearing about what others were doing and sharing stories of past actions.
At 1:30 pm we left the church and gathered on the street corner near the Supreme Court and across the street from the Capitol. We were planning to set up on the sidewalk directly in front of the Supreme Court, but the police there would not allow us to set up the model drones and so we moved to the corner with our drones – another infringement on our First Amendment rights.
We had a rally with a number of speakers talking about the issues of war, poverty, racism, and climate crisis that brought us together that day. Though we sent out a press release, the only media attention we got was from the foreign press, with just one local independent media person. It is a real failing on the part of our mainstream media that they do not provide coverage showing dissent, with people talking about these important issues.
At about 2:30, after each person risking arrest was able to share why they were engaging in nonviolent civil resistance, we walked toward the Capitol with petition in hand. There was a long roadway leading from the sidewalk to the Capitol and we thought we might be stopped, but we were able to get to the steps of the Capitol before an officer stopped us and told us we could not go any further.
We told him we wanted to deliver a petition to Biden, as well as a list of war crimes, and he said we couldn’t, but that he would escort us to the grassy area where we could protest. We told him that we were not there to protest, but rather we were citizens who were attempting to deliver a petition to our government for a redress of grievances, a First Amendment right. By this time, some members of our group were on the steps holding a banner saying, “Stop the War Machine: Export Peace”. The officer said they needed to come down off the steps, and at that point the rest of us walked up the steps and stopped short of a chain blocking us from going further with a sign that said there was no access to the public past that point.
Art Laffin, who was there with others in solidarity, led the group in singing “We shall not be moved” and as we sang an officer gave us three warnings that we needed to get off the steps. As we held our ground they started handcuffing those on the steps and told the others that they had to leave if they didn’t want to be arrested.
It was probably less than 15 minutes between the time we arrived at the steps of the Capitol and the arrests began. I expect they wanted to clean up quickly before people started arriving for the president’s version of the state of the union.
The 13 arrested included Eve Tetaz, Alice Sutter, Janice Sevre-Duszynska, Joy First, Trudy Silver, Linda LeTendre, Joan Nicholson, Carol Gay, Max Obuszewski, Malachy Kilbride, Martin Gugino, Phil Runkel, and Brian Terrell. In addition, there were others who were important in making this action happen including our jail support David, Don, and Paki.
We were taken in vans to the Capitol police station where we were processed and released with a court date of February 3. When we compared citations after the action some read we were charged with blocking, other citations noted the charge was incommoding and obstructing.
I will be surprised if the government goes through with prosecuting us. It seems the government is dismissing a lot of cases against activists over the last few years. In this case, we were exercising our First Amendment rights, simply and peacefully attempting to deliver a petition to our government. We did block or obstruct anyone. We were standing against a chain, we did not cross, that had a sign reading the public did not have access past that point. What did we do wrong? Why were we arrested?
The charges may be dismissed, but it would be better if we went to trial and could bring these issues into the courtroom. If we continue to be arrested and then the charges are dropped before trial, it appears that the government is using that as a way to block our access and not allowing our grievances to be heard.
As we have noted in many actions over the last several years, the government is becoming less and less accessible to the citizens. If you are part of a wealthy corporation or have a lot of money, you will have the ear of those in power in DC. But the rest of us do not have a way to access our government about our concerns. We have written letters that have not been answered. We follow up with visits to the White House, Congress, the Pentagon, the Department of Justice etc. and we are refused a meeting with anyone in a policy-making position. My friend Linda said that as the crimes of the government become greater and greater, accessibility to the government becomes less and less.
I do not take action because I want to be arrested, though I know I put myself at risk for being arrested for the actions I take. I am engaging in nonviolent civil resistance and I am acting in resistance to the crimes of the government. I am not the one who is breaking the law, but we have many in our government, including Obama, who should be prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
These actions are not something I relish doing, but I feel a deep spiritual calling to do this work for my grandchildren and all the children of the world. I am not suffering by the minor inconvenience of being arrested, but there is much grave suffering by children, mothers, and fathers, sisters and brothers both here at home and around the world because of the illegal policies of our government. And so, when I do an action like this I know I am exactly where I need to be and speaking out exactly as I need to be speaking. There is no place else in the world I needed to be at that moment, but on the steps of the Capitol trying to deliver a petition of our grievances.
There are so many grave ills facing the world - war, poverty, racism, climate crisis, and systemic violence to name a few. Please consider taking to the streets. We need more people in the streets engaging in nonviolent civil resistance. That is the only way we will bring about real and lasting change. We will not survive unless we do. It is up to we, the people to demand change.
Video of the January 12 action
https://archive.org/details/
The Actual State of the Union, or FDR's Four Freedoms Become Obama's Four Questions
Originally published by Telesur
President Barack Obama used his final State of the Union speech to claim that "America is leading the fight against climate change," while in reality the United States is far and away the worst offender, per capita, in the ongoing mad race to render the earth's climate uninhabitable. We "cut our imports of foreign oil," Obama brags, as if earth cares what flag its pollution belches into the air under. "Gas under two bucks a gallon ain't bad," said the President, wildly missing the mark. Yes, it is bad, if you're trying to preserve a livable planet, not just win cheap applause.
"I'm going to push to change the way we manage our oil and coal resources," said the president. He made no mention of changing the way the U.S. government hands out subsidies to those industries.
The state of U.S. militarism also took a leap into an alternate reality. The President openly (if understatedly) bragged: "We spend more on our military than the next eight nations combined." He was open about the global chess board he's playing on: "Russia is pouring resources to prop up Ukraine and Syria — states they see slipping away from their orbit." And, somehow, "surveys show our standing around the world is higher than when I was elected to this office, and when it comes to every important international issue, people of the world do not look to Beijing or Moscow to lead — they call us." They do? All people of the world? It's just two years since a Gallup poll found the United States widely viewed around the world as the greatest threat to peace. When Russia and China vetoed war on Syria, much of the world wondered why they couldn't have tried to save Libya.
The President claimed that U.S.-created Middle Eastern disasters he helped to exacerbate are "conflicts that date back millennia." He also proposed -- no joke -- "winning" in "destroying" ISIS this year. Hmm. About closing that prison in Guantanamo and ending those wars in Afghanistan and Iraq ... ? After years of taking credit for "ending" the war on Afghanistan, Obama has switched to not mentioning it.
Also gone missing: the U.S. Constitution. "With or without Congressional action, ISIL will learn the same lessons," said this former "Constitutional law professor," promising presidential war regardless of Congressional action. On Syria, Obama euphemized, "we’re partnering with local forces." Is that what you call them now? He also opposed "calls to carpet bomb civilians" after he led the dropping of over 20,000 bombs on mostly Muslim countries just in the past year.
The supreme value in this speech, as in the presidential debates it mocked, was revenge: "When you come after Americans, we go after you. ... [W]e have long memories, and our reach has no limit."
Remember Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Four Freedoms? Speech, worship, want, and fear? Obama has now proposed Four Questions. I'm paraphrasing:
1. How do you make a fair economy? (well not by bailing out the bankers and then coming out against them in a speech 7 years too late).
2. How do you make technology work, including on climate change? (what if the solution to climate change involves less technology? what if blaming technology and globalism for a bad economy overlooks the long-forgotten promises of the Employee Free Choice Act and the prize-winning marketing campaign of Obama 2008?)
3. How do you keep America safe and lead the world but not be the world's policeman? (Has the world asked for a leader? Why isn't cooperation an option?)
4. Can our politics reflect what's best in us? (Whatever.)
After seven years of worsening climate, ocean, plutocracy, wars, blowback, surveillance, retribution for whistleblowers, secrecy, presidential power abuses, and drone murders, this is what you've got for us, Mr. President?
The lesson I take away is this: Pay little attention to 2016 campaign promises. Pay great attention to mobilizing the public pressure that has been missing for seven years.
Yellen has to raise rates: What’s Behind the Fed’s Decision to Raise Interest Rates in a Struggling Economy?
By Dave Lindorff
Much has been written over the past few weeks in the financial press and the business pages of general interest newspapers debating the wisdom of the decision in December by Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve Board to raise interest rates for the first time in almost a decade.
Emails: US Government Facilitated LNG Business Deals Before Terminals Got Required Federal Permits
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Emails and documents obtained by DeSmog reveal that the U.S. Department of Trade has actively promoted and facilitated business deals for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry and export terminal owners, even before some of the terminals have the federal regulatory agency permits needed to open for business.
Obama's Oily Christmas Gift: Faster Pipeline Approvals
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Just over a week before the U.S. signed the Paris climate agreement at the conclusion of the COP21 United Nations summit, President Barack Obama signed a bill into law with a provision that expedites permitting of oil and gas pipelines in the United States.
Big Oil Argued for U.S. Crude Exports to Fend Off Iran, But First Exporter Vitol Group Also Exported Iran's Oil
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
The American Petroleum Institute (API) successfully lobbied for an end to the 40-year ban on exporting U.S.-produced crude oil in part by making a geopolitical argument: Iran and Russia have the ability to export their oil, so why not unleash America?
"Miracle of American Oil": Continental Resources Courted Corporate Media to Sell Oil Exports
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
A document published by the Public Relations Society of America, discovered by DeSmog, reveals that from the onset of its public relations campaign, the oil industry courted mainstream media reporters to help it sell the idea of lifting the ban on crude oil exports to the American public and policymakers.
What winter?: No Denying It, Climate Change Is Happening Now
By Dave Lindorff
The leaves came off the last trees -- a crabapple, a willow and a hardy Norway maple -- during the first week of December this year, surely the latest I can remember seeing leaves on trees since we moved to the Philadelphia area 18 years ago. But it’s not just that.
Federal Court Gives Blessing to Covertly Approved Enbridge Cross-Border Tar Sands Pipeline Expansion
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
A federal court has ruled that the Enbridge Alberta Clipper (Line 67) cross-border tar sands pipeline expansion project, permitted covertly and behind closed doors by the Obama Administration, got its greenlight in a legal manner.
Groups Ask Columbia University To Reveal Funding Behind Exxon-Tied Center on Global Energy Policy
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Final exams and winter break loom large for students at Columbia University, but at the upper echelons of the university's administration, new calls for transparency about the funding of a university affiliated center are likely to create plenty of homework as well.
Meet the Lobbyists and Big Money Interests Pushing to End the Oil Exports Ban
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
The ongoing push to lift the ban on exports of U.S.-produced crude oil appears to be coming to a close, with Congress agreeing to a budget deal with a provision to end the decades-old embargo.
Obama’s Speech, Translated into Candor
By Norman Solomon
Here is a condensed version of President Obama's speech from the Oval Office on Sunday night, unofficially translated into plain English:
I kind of realize we can’t kill our way out of this conflict with ISIL, but in the short term hopefully we can kill our way out of the danger of a Republican victory in the presidential race next year.
As a practical matter, the current hysteria needs guidance, not a sense of proportion along the lines of what the New York Times just mentioned in passing: “The death toll from jihadist terrorism on American soil since the Sept. 11 attacks -- 45 people -- is about the same as the 48 killed in terrorist attacks motivated by white supremacist and other right-wing extremist ideologies.... And both tolls are tiny compared with the tally of conventional murders, more than 200,000 over the same period.”
While I’m urging some gun control, that certainly doesn’t apply to the Pentagon. The Joint Chiefs and their underlings have passed all the background checks they need by virtue of getting to put on a uniform of the United States Armed Forces.
As much as we must denounce the use of any guns that point at us, we must continue to laud the brave men and women who point guns for us -- and who fire missiles at terrorists and possible terrorists and sometimes unfortunately at wedding parties or misidentified vehicles or teenagers posthumously classified as “militants” after signature strikes or children who get in the way.
We can’t see ourselves in the folks we kill. But I know that we see ourselves with friends and coworkers at a holiday party like the one in San Bernardino. I know we see our kids in the faces of the young people killed in Paris.
Also I know we don’t see ourselves in the blameless individuals who have been beheaded by our ally Saudi Arabia, which has executed 150 people this year mostly by cutting off their heads with swords.
Nor should we bother to see ourselves in the people the Saudi government is slaughtering with airstrikes in Yemen on a daily basis. We sell the Saudis many billions of dollars worth of weapons that make the killings in San Bernardino look smaller than puny. But that’s the way it goes sometimes.
I gave a lofty major speech a couple of years ago about how a democratic society can’t have perpetual war. I like to talk about such sugary ideals; a spoonful helps the doublethink medicine go down.
Let me now say a word about what we should not do. We should not be drawn once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria. The United States of America has colossal air power -- and we’re going to use it. No muss, little fuss: except for people under the bombs, now being utilized at such a fast pace that the warhead supply chain is stretched thin.
Yes, we’re escalating a bit on the ground too, with hundreds of special operations forces going into Syria despite my numerous public statements -- adding up to more than a dozen since August 2013 -- that American troops would not be sent to Syria. Likewise we’ve got several thousand soldiers in Iraq, five years after I solemnly announced that “the American combat mission in Iraq has ended.”
But here’s the main thing: In the Middle East, the USA will be number one in dropping bombs and firing missiles. Lots of them! It’s true that we keep making enemies faster than we can possibly kill them, but that’s the nature of the beast.
In Afghanistan too. At the end of last year I ceremoniously proclaimed that “the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion” and the United States “will maintain a limited military presence in Afghanistan.” But within 10 months I changed course and declared that 5,500 U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan into 2017.
Midway through this fall -- even before the terrorist attacks in Paris -- the United States had launched an average of about 50 airstrikes per week in Syria during the previous year, and the New York Times reported that the U.S. military was preparing “to intensify airstrikes against the Islamic State” on Syrian territory.
And according to official Pentagon figures, the U.S.-led aerial bombing in Iraq has topped 4,500 airstrikes in the last year -- approaching an average rate of 100 per week.
Our military will hunt down terrorist plotters where they are plotting against us. In Iraq and Syria, airstrikes are taking out some of the latest ISIL leaders, heavy weapons, oil tankers, infrastructure. I’ve got to tell you that these actions will defeat ISIL, but I’ve got to not tell you that the airstrikes will kill a lot of civilians while launching new cycles of what gave rise to ISIL in the first place -- inflaming rage and grief while serving as a powerful recruitment tool for people to take up arms against us.
In the name of defeating terrorist forces, our air war has the effect of recruiting for them. Meanwhile, in Syria, our obsession with regime change has propelled us into closely aligning with extremist jihadi fighters. They sure appreciate the large quantities of our weapons that end up in their arsenals.
You don’t expect this policy to make a lot of sense, do you?
______________________________
Norman Solomon is the author of “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.” He is the executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and co-founder of RootsAction.org.
Exposed: ExxonMobil Funding Influential Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
On reading Mumia in gaol: Torture and Other Abuses Make Turkey as American as Apple Pie
By Linn Washington, Jr.
On the topic of torture the nation of Turkey could teach some gruesome techniques to ISIS, the terrorist movement executing a savage reign across Syria and beyond (reportedly with Turkish government support).
A half century of US hospital bombings: Gen. John Campbell, Commander in Afghanistan and Serial Liar
By Dave Lindorff
“US forces would never intentionally strike a hospital.”
-- US Commander of NATO Forces in Afghanistan Gen. John Campbell
An invisible US hand leading to war?: Turkey’s Downing of a Russian Jet at the Turkish/Syrian Border was an Act of Madness
By Dave Lindorff
In considering the terrifying but also sadly predictable news of a Russian fighter jet being downed by two Turkish fighters, let’s start with one almost certain assumption -- an assumption that no doubt is also being made by the Russian government: Turkey’s action, using US-supplied F-16 planes, was taken with the full knowledge and advance support of the US. In fact, given Turkey’s vassal status as a member of US-dominated NATO, it could well be that Ankara was put up to this act of brinksmanship by the US.
Where’s the truth, and how can you find it?: The US Corporate Media are Essentially Propaganda Organs of the US Government
Are the American corporate media largely propaganda organs, or news organizations?
Warmongers & Peacemongers: Learning How Not to Rule the World
By John Grant
[Al Qaeda’s] strategic objective has always been ... the overthrow of the House of Saud. In pursuing that regional goal, however, it has been drawn into a worldwide conflict with American power.
