The simmering tensions over the Malvinas Islands, or Falkland Islands (off the coast of Argentina in the South Atlantic) as called by the British occupiers, have become a matter of great concern as the UK decided to deploy destroyer HMS Dauntless to the islands. Continue reading
Remember the real reason why Moammar Gadhafi is dead. He dared to propose and started creating an alternative currency to the world reserve U.S. Dollar. The lesson learned in Libya is now ready for teaching in Iran. Forget all the noise about going nuclear, the true message is that the banksters rule and nation states serve their ultimate masters. Continue reading
The temptation of attacking Iran long entertained by Washington and Israel is gradually crystallizing into a reality of fear and angst and has already become an alarmingly worrisome idea even for those who are wont to see the glass half full. Continue reading
Occupy Wall Street (OWS), giving vent to the pent up anger of the 99%, has inspired the people in the United States and other parts of the world to expose capitalism for what it is: a profit-driven system that tends to enrich and empower a tiny minority at the expense of everyone else. Continue reading
In case you missed it, President Barack Obama has signed a death knell for the Bill of Rights. It’s a hell of a way to begin a year many believe will mark the end of the world. Continue reading
SAN FRANCISCO—For more than 20 years American presidential campaigns have warned about the exquisitely elaborate fantasy and dire danger of a nuclear armed Iran; nuclear weapons that Iran does not have and does not have the tools to make. So, why the continued big donor presidential campaign interest? Continue reading
Scarcely a word is heard about foreign affairs amid US election talk, despite the many fires around the world that the US military is either stoking or trying to douse—depending on your point of view. Other than Republican contender Ron Paul—not a serious candidate for the mainstream—no one questions the plans for war on Iran, Israel’s continued expansion in the Occupied Territories, or US plans to end the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Continue reading
It is a recurring theme: civilization committing barbaric acts to feed its refined gluttony. As we found out about American Marines urinating on dead Afghans, there was also a story about Brazilian loggers tying an eight-year-old girl to a tree and burning her to death. She belonged to the Awá, an Amazon tribe of around 300 members, with only 60 still clinging to their hunter-gatherer way of life. To maintain our so-called civilized standards of living, collateral damages are inevitable, and “savages” must be sacrificed. Continue reading
When it comes to US/Israeli strategy vis-à-vis Iran’s insistence on its right to enrich uranium ostensibly for peaceful purposes, there are wheels within wheels. If you think the situation is confusing that’s because it’s meant to be. What is certain is that tensions between the two sides have risen to incendiary levels in recent weeks. It only needs the purposeful or accidental strike of a match to thrust the entire Middle East and Gulf region into a full-scale conflict with devastating consequences. Continue reading
“I saw a motorcycle. They were wearing ski masks—black ski masks. They were two people. I saw the motorcycle speed by. I saw them. It seemed as if they had something in their hands,” this is how a female witness described the scene of the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan. Continue reading
As South Sudan implodes in a growing mass insanity of ethnic violence and once again tens of thousands have to flee for their lives, the warning signs all point towards the US plan to destabilize Sudan having begun to hit its stride. Continue reading
Neither rain nor sleet nor snow may have stopped the Pony Express, but the nation’s oldest and second largest employer is now under attack. Claiming the Postal Service is bankrupt, critics are pushing legislation that would defuse the postal crisis by breaking the backs of the postal workers’ unions and mandating widespread layoffs. But the “crisis” is an artificial one, created by Congress itself. Continue reading
From the recent massacres happening in Iraq and Syria, one can gather that Washington has adamantly trodden on a path which is to be seen as a way to redefine the war in Iraq, an effective stratagem to bring the regime of Assad to its doom and recalibrate a comprehensive plan to topple the Islamic government of Iran. Continue reading
While the history of the world is moving decisively toward a culture of inclusion, diversity and pluralism, Israeli politics seems to challenge history by moving in the opposite direction of exclusion and unilateral self-righteous monopoly of geography, demography, history, archeology and culture, especially in Jerusalem, where Israelis are desperately trying to establish a “Jewish” capital for Israel and “the Jewish people” worldwide, excluding centuries old presence of Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and Christian deep-rooted existence and heritage, thus sowing the seeds of imminent conflict and foreseeable war by strangling a city that has historically been of diversified and pluralistic character and a flashpoint for human misery whenever exclusion becomes the rule of the day. Continue reading
Iran, Iraq and North Korea may have been labeled “the axis of evil” by President George W. Bush but it is Saudi Arabia that is the center of the Satanic universe here on Earth. Continue reading
There was an unmistakable hint of triumph in the comments made by Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the elected Hamas government in Gaza, when he was hosted by Mohammed Badie, Supreme Guide of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Continue reading
The Pentagon has already declared World War III and President Barack Obama and the Congress never even carried out their constitutional duties to approve the use of American military power for war. Continue reading
Tahrir Square continues to send out its beacon of light. Thousands of Russian riot police were deployed in Red Square on 10 December to prevent it from being turned into another Tahrir, when demonstrators, without any resources except cell phones and fur-lined winter coats, pulled off the largest uprising since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, in 60 Russian cities, across nine time zones, with at least one repeat performance scheduled for 24 December. Continue reading
All the commentary from expert analysts about the crumbling financial system is almost useless to understand what is really happening in the world today. Countless articles are written about how to fix the economy and restore growth to the system, but they are only relevant to a system that was never sustainable and is now coming to an end. What we call the ‘system’ has become so complicated that it appears to have a life of its own, and not even the most sophisticated banker understands what is going on anymore. Few economists or politicians speak in terms that mean anything to the ordinary person who is struggling to find or keep a job, make ends meet and provide for their family. But at the same time, something profoundly new is happening throughout the world that requires a much simpler way of looking at things if we are to comprehend what it means. Continue reading
Americans have seen their freedoms decline on almost every front over the past decade. We have been spied on by surveillance cameras, eavesdropped on by government agents, had our belongings searched, our phones tapped, our mail opened, our email monitored, our opinions questioned, our purchases scrutinized (under the USAPATRIOT Act, banks are required to analyze your transactions for any patterns that raise suspicion and to see if you are connected to any objectionable people), and our activities watched. We’ve also been subjected to invasive pat-downs and whole-body scans of our persons and seizures of our electronic devices in the nation’s airports. We can’t even purchase certain cold medicines at the pharmacy anymore without it being reported to the government and our names being placed on a watch list. Continue reading
According to Fabius Maximus (FM), “The history of counter-insurgency [COIN] warfare is the repeated rediscovery and use of tactics that failed before.” FM quotes from David Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest to make his point. Continue reading
Political observers and Middle East experts have been terrified by the intensity and speed of the Obama administration’s both stated and covert operations in the Arab World. In observing the events, the question that they raise is, “Is the administration following the Bush administration’s blueprint for the Arabs?” The Washington Post (November 24, 2011) reported that Washington is intensifying its proxy fight in Somalia and that it has used drones to carry out lethal attacks in at least six countries. Indeed, the intensity of Washington’s militaristic involvement has induced the right-wing Washington Times (May 16, 2011) to proudly declare that Obama’s strategy for the region resembles the Bush Doctrine. Continue reading
With a 60 per cent turnout, United Russia’s solid 49.5 per cent plurality in the 4 December Duma elections, giving it 238 of the 450 seats, is the envy of any Western political party. But it is nonetheless a disappointment after its 2007 sweep, where it gained over two-thirds of the seats. Very, very few parties ever approach the magic two-thirds that lets them ignore the opposition and change the constitution, and Prime Minister and President-virtually-elect Vladimir Putin even put a positive spin on the results: “This is an optimal result which reflects the real situation in the country,” Putin, 59, said coolly. “Based on this result we can guarantee stable development of our country.” (He will be recrowned president in pro forma elections 4 March.) Continue reading
The Palestinian Uprising or Intifada of 1987 remains the single most significant triumph of popular mobilization in Palestinian history. Continue reading
It’s hard to imagine a greater provocation than your bosom buddy killing 28 of your own soldiers. NATO helicopters violated the airspace of Pakistan from Afghanistan last month and opened unprovoked fire on a check post in Mohmand, northwest Pakistan at midnight. Presumably the pilots got the wrong coordinates from MacDill Air Force Central Command in Florida or took too many army-prescribed uppers. The attack continued even after Pakistani commanders pleaded with coalition forces to stop. Continue reading
The so-called ‘Arab Spring’ is creating an intellectual divide that threatens any sensible understanding of the turmoil engulfing several Arab countries. Continue reading
A bill even bigger and worse than the PATRIOT Act is waiting in the wings for American citizens. It’s called the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012 (S. 1253) and has received less coverage than the true amount of radiation levels at Fukishima, and can prove to be as lethal. Continue reading
As the Occupy Wall Street movement spread across the nation, mistakes and setbacks occurred which are minimal when compared to its success in calling attention to the private domination of America’s wealth by the upper 1% as a major cause of our social problems. Agents of that minority are feverishly at work, whether directly on the payroll or simply acting according to anti-social programming that teaches individualism, selfish egoism and the divisive identity politics that reduce the 99% to splintered minorities and assure continued domination by the richest 1%. Continue reading
After the Arab League hypocritically suspended the membership of Syria amid the mounting pressures of NATO and the United States, the resurgence of violence in Egypt and the increasing use of excessive force in Bahrain and Yemen, and the unrelenting massacre of innocent civilians by the barbaric regime of Al Khalifa and Ali Abdullah Saleh once again attracted the attention of conscientious observers in the international community. Continue reading
The day before the Thanksgiving holiday brought three extraordinary news items. One was the report on the Republican presidential campaign debate. One was the Russian President’s statement about his country’s response to Washington’s missile bases surrounding his country. And one was the failure of a German government bond auction. Continue reading
The Penn State Board of Trustees may have several times violated state law for its failure to publicly announce meetings and how it handled the firing of Coach Joe Paterno. However, these violations may be the least of the board’s worries, as it scrambles to reduce fall-out from the scandal that began with revelations that an assistant football coach may be a serial child molester, and that the university may have been negligent. Continue reading
The Horn of Africa is one of the most strategically critical regions in the world with the narrow passage where the Red Sea joins the Indian Ocean, the Bab el-Mandeb, being a potential chokepoint for much of the world’s commerce. Continue reading
RSS