Editor’s Note: This report is an excerpt from David DeGraw’s new book, “The Road Through 2012: Revolution or World War III.” It is a continuation from the previous section, “Inside the Global Banking Intelligence Complex, BCCI Operations.” This is the fourth installment to a new series. To be notified via email of new postings from this series, subscribe here.
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Nobel Laureate president defends unprovoked war against Syria: Obama Offers No Evidence Assad Ordered Syria Poison Gas Attack
By Dave Lindorff
In what NPR called “perhaps President Obama’s last best chance” to make his case for launching a war against Syria, the president tellingly didn’t make a single effort to present hard, compelling evidence to prove that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad had been behind the alleged Sarin Aug. 21 attack on residents of a suburb of Damascus.
Not one piece of evidence.
A people’s victory over Syrian attack plan: In Historic First, American Empire is Blocked at the Starting Line
By Dave Lindorff
Let’s be clear here. The people of the US and the world have won a huge victory over a war-obsessed US government and an administration that was hell-bent on yet again launching a criminal war of aggression against a country that poses no threat to the US or its neighbors. Overwhelming public opposition in the US and the nations of Europe, as well as most of the rest of the world to a US strike on Syria have forced the US to falter and to accept the idea of a compromise deal offered by Russia.
Obama’s and Kerry’s Big Lie: White House Document “Proving” Syria’s Guilt Doesn’t Pass Smell Test
By Dave Lindorff
The document released on the White House web site to “prove” to the American people that the Syrian government had used poison gas -- allegedly the neurotoxin Sarin -- to kill hundreds of civilians, is so flawed and lacking in real proof that if it were being used to make a case against a terrorist group it would be too weak to justify an indictment.
Today’s freedom heroes are expected to admit guilt, take the rap: Salem on the Potomac
By Dave Lindorff
Is America playing its last card?: Pissing Off Friends is a Doomed Strategy
By Dave Lindorff
Like an obnoxious drunk harassing everyone and spilling drinks at a party, the US has continued to make itself both loathed and laughed at in the wake of the revelations about the National Security Agency’s global spying program as revealed by NSA leaker Edward Snowden.
Holder promises Russia not to torture Snowden: A Shameful Day to Be a US Citizen
By Dave Lindorff
I have been deeply ashamed of my country a number of times. The Nixon Christmas bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong was one such time, when hospitals, schools and dikes were targeted. The invasion of Iraq was another. Washington’s silence over the fatal Israeli Commando raid on the Gaza Peace Flotilla--in which a 19-year-old unarmed American boy was murdered--was a third. But I think I have never been as ashamed and disgusted as I was today reading that US Attorney General Eric Holder had sent a letter to the Russian minister of justice saying that the US would “not seek the death penalty” in its espionage case against National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, promising that even if the US later brought added charges against Snowden after obtaining him, they would not include any death penalty, and vowing that if Snowden were handed over by Russia to the US, he would “not be tortured.”
So it has come to this: That the United States has to promise (to Russia!) that it will not torture a prisoner in its control -- a US citizen at that -- and so therefore that person, Edward Snowden, has no basis for claiming that he should be “treated as a refugee or granted asylum.”
Why does Holder have to make these pathetic representations to his counterpart in Russia?
Because Snowden has applied for asylum saying that he is at risk of turture or execution if returned to the US to face charges for leaking documents showing that the US government is massively violating the civil liberties and privacy of every American by monitoring every American’s electronic communications.
Snowden has made that claim in seeking asylum because he knows that another whistleblower, Pvt. Bradley Manning, was in fact tortured by the US for months, and held without trial in solitary confinement for over a year before being finally put on trial in a kangaroo court, where the judge is as much prosecutor as jurist, and where his guilt was declared in advance by the President of the United States -- the same president who has also already publicly declared Snowden guilty too...
For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF inThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent three-time Project Censored Award-winning online alternative newspaper, please go to:www.thiscantbehappening.net/
Was this perhaps really the goal?: Snowden, Trapped in Moscow Airport by US, Makes Formal bid for Russia Asylum
By Dave Lindorff
The Snowden saga continues to get weirder.
His 'Crime' is Patriotism, not Betrayal Like Hale's Philip Nolan, Snowden has Become a 'Man Without a Country'
By Dave Lindorff
In Edward Everett Hale's short story "The Man Without a Country," US Army Lt. Philip Nolan, following a court-martial, is exiled from his country, his citizenship snatched away, leaving him doomed to sail the seven seas confined to a Navy vessel, unable to make any country his home. His crime: being seduced by a treacherous leader to betray the US of A, the country of his birth.
In Obamaland, ‘Rule of Law’ is for the Other Suckers: US (and French) Courts Have Ruled Head-of-State Immunity is Absolute
By Dave Lindorff
It is clear that the entrapment and forced landing in Austria of the official airplane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales was the work of the US, which was obviously behind the decision by France and Portugal to deny air rights to the flight, and which also was obviously behind the Austrian government’s demand to be allowed to search the jet after it landed. After all, those countries have no interest themselves in capturing US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, who is only Obama’s and the NSA’s quarry.
Servile Euro Leaders Cave Under US Pressure: Bolivia's Morales Dissed and Pissed as Diplomatic Immunity Ignored
By Dave Lindorff
Those of us who have been saying that the US has become a weak, or at least more ordinary power among many in the world because of its military failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, and because of its economic decline, will have to recalibrate our analysis after watching the pathetic behavior of the leaders of Russia, Germany and France under pressure from the Obama administration not to allow Edward Snowden to gain asylum in those countries or even to escape his purgatory in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
Biden/Obama full-court press on Snowden is a bad joke: The Real Traitors to America are in Washington and New York
By Dave Lindorff
It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry as the US goes all out to get its hands on National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Snowden’s escape: China, Hong Kong and Russia Foil US Attempt to Silence NSA Whistleblower
By Dave Lindorff
Now that Edward Snowden is safely away out of the clutches of the US police state, at least for now, let’s take a moment to contemplate how this one brave man’s principled confrontation with the Orwellian US government has damaged our national security state.
Was Mary of Nazareth a "Hooligan?"
Pussy Riot’s Appeal for Justice
Editor Note: A Russian judge has sentenced three female “punk” rockers from the group “Pussy Riot” to two years in prison for performing a protest song at a Moscow cathedral, what the judge called anti-religious “hooliganism.” But Ray McGovern sees the protest as in the spirit of Mary, mother of Jesus.
By Ray McGovern
The song to which the punk band “Pussy Riot” danced on Feb. 21 in Russia’s iconic Christ the Savior Cathedral ends with a prayer asking Jesus’s mother Mary to “become a feminist,” but Mary always was a feminist through and through, with a voice speaking strongly for justice.
Centuries of saccharine portraits and iconography have obscured a more reality-based appreciation of this gutsy young woman. But recent scripture study throws light on how Mary implanted a vision of inclusive justice into the heart of Jesus.
Talk Nation Radio: Bruce Gagnon on U.S. Aggression Toward Russia and China
Bruce Gagnon describes U.S. and NATO plans in the works to militarily surround and threaten both Russia and China. Gagnon is co-founder and coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space at http://space4peace.org. He blogs at http://space4peace.blogspot.com He's the author of Come Together Right Now, and of a chapter in The Military Industrial Complex at 50.
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
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Music by Duke Ellington.
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Report: Massive War Game Planned by Iran, Russia, China, Syria
From The Blaze:
Iran, Russia, China, and Syria plan to stage a massive war game over the next few weeks with the participation of 90,000 troops, 400 warplanes and 1,000 tanks making it the “biggest joint war game in [the] Mid-East,” the semiofficial Iranian Fars News Agency reported Tuesday.
The news agency writes from Tehran:
The Iranian, Russian, Chinese and Syrian armies are due to stage joint amphibious exercises along the Syrian costs [sic] in coming weeks, informed sources revealed on Monday.
According to informed sources, 90,000 forces from the four countries will take part in the land and sea wargames due to be held in Syria.
Ground, air and sea forces as well as air defense and missile units of the four countries will take part in the exercises.
Sources also said that Egypt has acceded to grant passage to 12 Chinese warships to sail through the Suez Canal, adding that the military convoy is due to dock at the Syrian harbors in the next two weeks.
Stepped Up Russia Bashing
Stepped Up Russia Bashing
by Stephen Lendman
Russia is Washington's main military rival. Each nation has powerful nuclear arsenals and delivery systems able to destroy the other.
On December 31, 1999, Russia's lost decade under Boris Yeltsin ended. Vladimir Putin replaced him.
NDAA Reignites Cold War with Russia, Opens Door for Hot War with Iran
WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 18, 2012) -- Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today released the following statement after Congress passed H.R. 4310, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2013.
“In addition to language saber-rattling and preparing for war with Iran, the FY013 NDAA includes language that could undermine our diplomatic relationship with Russia and thwart the implementation of the historic Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) follow-on. For example, the House accepted an amendment that adds to efforts to delay the implementation of START by preventing any reductions to our nuclear arsenal until the Secretary of Defense reports to Congress on Russia’s compliance with the Treaty.
“Another such amendment, adopted by voice vote in the middle of the night, singles out Russia by limiting the availability of funds for Cooperative Threat Reduction Activities with Russia until the Secretary of Defense ‘can certify that Russia is no longer supporting the Syrian regime and is not providing to Syria, North Korea or Iran any equipment or technology that contributes to the development of weapons of mass destruction.’
”Put simply, these are ploys to delay the Defense Department’s ability to implement the nuclear arms reductions as required by the START Treaty and will only raise tensions with our Russian ally,” said Kucinich.
“We should be working cooperatively with Russia to not only reduce arms but to abolish all nuclear weapons.”
Medvedev warns against interference in other countries' affairs
The Voice of Russia
Military interference in other countries` domestic affairs could lead to a fully fledged war, in which the use of nuclear weapons cannot be ruled out, Russia`s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said addressing the International Legal forum held in Saint Petersburg.
Mr. Medvedev added that joint sanctions imposed on any country in violation of international law would not benefit the international community, and the consequences of hasty military operations in foreign countries usually lead to the seizure of power by radical politicians.
“Some day such actions which undermine another state`s sovereignty could turn into a fully fledged regional war, so - and I am not trying to frighten anybody - one could not rule out the use of nuclear weapons as a consequence”, Medvedev said.
State Department Spokesperson Refuses to Say the Word Drone-Calls Them “Those Other Things that Fly”
By Ann Wright
I attended Foreign Affairs Day on May 4. No, it wasn’t the Secret Service’s foreign affairs, but the annual unclassified briefing by senior State Department officials to their retired colleagues.
The State Department’s Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (again, not like the not-so-secret Secret Service members public affairs in Colombia) Michael Hammer gave a quick verbal tour of the hot spots of the world and the US government’s approach to resolving conflicts.
During his talk he commented on security for the biggest US Embassy in the world, Hammer said that the State Department now has its own air fleet, fixed wing aircraft and helicopters at the US Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.
During a short question period after his presentation, I asked Mr. Hammer a question about other types of aircraft that were reported by the New York Times in January, 2012 to be circling US Embassy Baghdad— drones used for surveillance over the huge Embassy compound.
I asked, “We have read that the State Department is now operating other types of aircraft at the US Embassy in Baghdad—drones. With the proliferation of drones throughout the world with the US trying to sell $1 billion of drones to NATO countries and Israel selling drones to many countries including $100 million in drones to Russia, should the United States government expect blowback from those who violently disagree with its use of drones for extrajudicial executions in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia and the execution of 3 American citizens last year? Additionally, with Russian officials announcing that Russia has the right to make pre-emptive strikes on the US missile defense system, should we anticipate they might decide not to risk the life of a Russian bomber pilot and instead use one of the drones purchased from the Israeli government to blow up one of the facilities in the American missile defense system?”
Hammer didn’t even try to answer the question about proliferation of drones and the Russian comments on their right to preemptively destroy a weapon system that they say threatens their national security.
Instead Hammer became tongue-tied about discussing drones at the US Embassy Baghdad. In fact, he couldn’t even say the word “drones.” Hammer said he couldn’t comment on “those other things that fly.”
I immediately reminded him that Obama’s chief of counter-terrorism John Brennan, four days ago, on April 30, 2012, had given a long speech acknowledging what the world has known for years, that the US uses drones to kill those whom they determine are a threat to the United States. As the chief of the office charged with explaining US foreign policies, Hammer lamely said, “I can’t discuss this.”
About the Author: Ann Wright is a 29 year US Army/Army Reserve veteran who retired as a Colonel. She also spent 16 years as a US diplomat serving in US Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. In March, 2003, she resigned from the US government in opposition to the US war on Iraq.
Kucinich: NATO Missile Defense Program Provokes Ally
Washington D.C. (May 4, 2012) -- Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), a longtime opponent of the proposed European missile “defense” system, today made the following statement after Russia announced it would be prepared to use “destructive force preemptively” if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (at the behest of the United States) moves forward to establish the missile system:
Russia Threatens Preemptive Strike Against U.S. Missile Offense Bases
1. The United States has lost the moral authority and destroyed the legal authority to oppose threats of preemptive strikes
2. Unlike U.S. threats of preemptive strikes against Iraq or Libya or Iran, this is a threat to preempt something that does actually pose a danger to Russia
3. So-called missile defense does not work as and is not intended as defense, but as part of a first-strike assault
4. Antagonizing Russia (part of why the G8 has fled to Camp David) serves NATO's interest in finding a reason to exist, and serves the financial interests of weapons makers, but does not serve the interests of the United States or humanity
5. When the U.S. threatened Russia over missiles in Cuba, Russia took them out. Now the tables are turned. We're putting missiles on Russia's borders. Russia is asking us to take them out. --DS
By AP
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's top military officer has threatened to carry out a pre-emptive strike on U.S.-led NATO missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe if Washington goes ahead with its controversial plan to build a missile shield.
President Dmitry Medvedev said last year that Russia will retaliate militarily if it does not reach an agreement with the United States and NATO on the missile defense system.
Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov went even further Thursday. "A decision to use destructive force pre-emptively will be taken if the situation worsens," he said at an international conference attended by senior U.S. and NATO officials.
Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov also warned on Thursday that talks between Moscow and Washington on the topic are "close to a dead end."
Droning on... and on, across whole countries... with secret military & CIA programs...
In Air America: Under the Imperial Eye, Chris Floyd reports on the recent revelation that Iraq's supposedly "sovereign airspace" is constantly under surveillance by a network of drones operated by the State Department. Apparently the only reason this news came to light is because of a publicly available government appeal for private bids on the project. Neither we nor Iraqis were meant to know:
"Iraqis were outraged this week to find they are being spied upon by a fleet of American drones hovering constantly in their supposedly sovereign skies, long after the supposed withdrawal of American forces."
The 2011 Edition: Why Do They Hate Us?
By Dave Lindorff
Russian Ambassador Asks If Even Space Aliens Could Alter US Military Expansion
Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to NATO, wanted to push his American negotiating partner into a corner. "If space aliens were to completely disarm Iran," he asked, "would Washington continue with its plans to build a missile defense system in Poland?"
The defense shield is designed to intercept missiles from rogue states like Iran, the United States has repeatedly insisted. The conversation between the Russian ambassador and his US counterpart, which Rogozin told SPIEGEL about last week, took place in Washington behind closed doors on July 22. And the answer, given by President Barack Obama's undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, Ellen Tauscher, was reportedly unambiguous: Yes, she said. The plan has been decided upon and will be carried out.
Rogozin sees the response as conclusive evidence that the defense shield is effectively bulwark against Russia. "America is shifting the strategic balance to its advantage in that it wants to neutralize Russia's nuclear deterrence potential," the top-level diplomat said. "The Kremlin is fed up with being taken for fools by the Americans."
In His Own Words: Bush a Warmonger
U.S. Intelligence Thwarted Attack on Iran
By Ray McGovern
Why should George W. Bush have been “angry” to learn in late 2007 of the “high-confidence” unanimous judgment of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran had stopped working on a nuclear weapon four years earlier? Seems to me he might have said “Hot Dog!” rather than curse under his breath.
Nowhere in his memoir, Decision Points, is Bush’s bizarre relationship with truth so manifest as when he describes his dismay at learning that the intelligence community had redeemed itself for its lies about Iraq by preparing an honest National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. As the Bush-book makes abundantly clear, that NIE rammed an iron rod through the wheels of the juggernaut rolling toward war.
Nowhere is Bush’s abiding conviction clearer, now as then, that his role as “decider” include the option to create his own reality.
The Covert Origins of the Af-Pak War - The Road to World War III
Russian Spy Case: Espionage or Politics?
Russian Spy Case: Espionage or Politics?
By Stephen Lendman
In their June 28 article headlined, "In Ordinary Lives, US Sees the Work of Russian Agents," Scott Shane and Charlie Savage said they "lived for more than a decade in American cities and suburbs from Seattle to New York, where they seemed to be ordinary couples working ordinary jobs, chatting to their neighbors about schools and apologizing for noisy teenagers."
The next day, Times writers Shane and Benjamin Weiser headlined, "Spying Suspects Seemed Short on Secrets," saying:
"The only things (absent in this case) were actual secrets to send home to Moscow." In fact, none of the 11 were charged with espionage because they weren't "caught sending classified information back to Moscow, American officials said."
According to Richard F. Stolz, former CIA head of spy operations and onetime Moscow station chief:
"What in the world do they think they were going to get out of this, in this day and age? The effort is out of proportion to the alleged benefits. I just don't understand what they expected?
It prompted Newsweek to headline - "Part John le Carre, Part Austin Powers," saying why would Russia "set up such elaborate long-term undercover plants when (they) could arguably buy as much influence (with) the right consultants, lawyers, and lobbyists" - the way everyone does business in Washington, the right information/results for the right price.
