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Freedom from Alaska!

Category: War Page 49 of 51

Almost Half of Iraqi Adults Are Unemployed

By

On September 1, 2008

In War

From: AlterNet

“If you don’t have money to pay bribes, you can’t get a job,” says one mechanical engineer. “I’d drive a garbage truck; I’d do anything,”

BAGHDAD — Every morning for a year and a half, Tariq Razzaq has been coming to the decrepit entrance of a neighborhood maintenance office in southern Baghdad with a single goal in mind: to get a job. Every morning, the office employees turn him down.

It’s not that Razzaq, a 29-year-old former soldier in Saddam Hussein’s army, isn’t willing to do the lowest-paid manual labor: On a rare good day, the maintenance office asks Razzaq to perform one-time jobs cleaning trash and war debris out of gutters. It’s that he doesn’t have the money to bribe his way into a job.

“It’s simple: To find a steady job you need to have connections, or pay cash,” explains Razzaq, who spends most days with a group of other unemployed men who loitering in the shadow of the maintenance office parking lot, hoping that someone would ask him to pump up his tires or wash his car. The other unemployed Iraqis nod emphatically in agreement.

Read Entire Article

Biden Is Obama’s Dick Cheney — “the single most important Congressional backer of the Bush administration’s decision to invade” Iraq

By

On August 26, 2008

In Barack Obama, Joe Biden, War

From: Foreign Policy in Focus, Biden, Iraq, and Obama’s Betrayal, by Stephen Zunes

Incipient Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s selection of Joseph Biden as his running mate constitutes a stunning betrayal of the anti-war constituency who made possible his hard-fought victory in the Democratic primaries and caucuses.

The veteran Delaware senator has been one the leading congressional supporters of U.S. militarization of the Middle East and Eastern Europe, of strict economic sanctions against Cuba, and of Israeli occupation policies.

Most significantly, however, Biden, who chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the lead-up to the Iraq War during the latter half of 2002, was perhaps the single most important congressional backer of the Bush administration’s decision to invade that oil-rich country. …

It is difficult to over-estimate the critical role Biden played in making the tragedy of the Iraq war possible. More than two months prior to the 2002 war resolution even being introduced, in what was widely interpreted as the first sign that Congress would endorse a U.S. invasion of Iraq, Biden declared on August 4 that the United States was probably going to war. In his powerful position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he orchestrated a propaganda show designed to sell the war to skeptical colleagues and the America public by ensuring that dissenting voices would not get a fair hearing.

As Scott Ritter, the former chief UN weapons inspector, noted at the time, “For Sen. Biden’s Iraq hearings to be anything more than a political sham used to invoke a modern-day Gulf of Tonkin resolution-equivalent for Iraq, his committee will need to ask hard questions – and demand hard facts – concerning the real nature of the weapons threat posed by Iraq.”

It soon became apparent that Biden had no intention of doing so. Biden refused to even allow Ritter himself – who knew more about Iraq’s WMD capabilities than anyone and would have testified that Iraq had achieved at least qualitative disarmament – to testify.

Read Entire Article

Related:

Devvy Kidd — Joseph Biden: Liar, Cheat, Traitor — NWO Globalist

My Dream: The Name of the Antichrist Revealed?

Obama Surrounding Himself with Hawks — War Machine Continues as Ron Paul Predicted — All War All the Time

Bob Chapman believes that Biden is Obama’s Illuminati handler:

“Biden will be his handler just as Cheney was, and continues to be, [Bush’s] handler. In fact, that’s why Biden, a fervent and hardened Illuminist, was chosen as VP.”

Hitler’s 2nd in Command, Hermann Göring: It’s EASY to Drag People into War. All You Have to Do is…

By

On July 30, 2008

In War

“Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. …voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”

– Hermann Göring

Gilbert, G. (1995). Nuremberg Diary. New York: Da Capo Press, 278-279. ISBN 0306806614.

Neil Young’s Film Documents Hate in America During Anti-War Concert Tour

By

On July 28, 2008

In People Cursing People, War

From: MSNBC

NEW YORK – Not every musician will make a film that features a fan facing him from a concert audience with two arms raised, middle fingers extended — more than one fan, in fact.

Neil Young was singing protest songs on a “Freedom of Speech” tour with David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash at the time. Ignoring that kind of nonverbal speech would contradict the message, wouldn’t it?

It was an easy call. Using the nom de plume Bernard Shakey, Young directs “CSNY: Deja Vu,” a film that uses the tumult surrounding CSNY’s 2006 concert tour as a backdrop for exploring divisions in the country over the Iraq war. It opens in theaters on Friday. …

Young never wants to do such a tour again, and not just because he hopes for peace. “It’s too draining and terrifying,” he said. “I was committed to it … and I followed it all the way through to the end, but it’s very dangerous and it’s not fun.”

Read Entire Article

Pat Robertson Advocates Israel Bombing Iran Before 2008 Election

By

On July 24, 2008

In Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran, False Christians Trashing America, Israel, Pat Robertson, War

WWJB

Who would Jesus bomb?

Who would the HOLY Spirit lead “pastors”
to encourage Israel or US to bomb (or assassinate)?

Aren’t pastors to call US into loving all of our neighbors (Iran)
& to repent for the last time we didn’t (Iraq/Afghanistan)?

How many years away is Iran from maybe having nukes?

Whatever happened to diplomacy—actually talking?

Where are the anti-missile missiles?

Shalom

From: Think Progress

On yesterday’s edition of The 700 Club, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson sharply criticized the “moderate tone” the Bush administration has allegedly taken toward Iran and its nuclear weapons program. Robertson advocated that Israel look out for the “survival of its nation” and “make some kind of a strike” against Iranian nuclear facilities. He also predicted that it will likely happen before the 2008 elections:

But nevertheless, I think we can look in the next few months for Israel to make a strike — possibly before the next election — because I think George Bush — to use the term an “amber light” — he’s given the amber, the yellow light, saying, “Caution, but go ahead.”

[…]

ROBERTSON: I’ve been very surprised that we’ve taken the moderate tone we have so far. I think we’re making a mistake.

Watch Interview; Read Entire Article

Michael Franti & Spearhead : Time To Go Home

By

On July 19, 2008

In Michael Franti, Music Videos, War

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=iSeuLsNV4CA]

Michael Franti on His Iraq Visit & DVD: “I Know I’m Not Alone: A Musician’s Search for the Human Cost of War”

By

On July 19, 2008

In Michael Franti, War

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=rF_H8-3ZgB4]Interview

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2wF32PfPyM]I Know I’m Not Alone DVD Preview

Related:

Michael Franti & Ron Paul on Iraq: “Do Unto Others” [great footage from the DVD]

Michael Franti & Spearhead: I Know I’m Not Alone [music video]

I Know I’m Not Alone Official Site

Michael Franti: Power to the Peaceful Festival at Golden Gate Park

By

On July 17, 2008

In 9-11 TRUTH, Forgiving/Grudgless/No Hate, Michael Franti, War

I would love to see something like the Power to the Peaceful Festival happen even in Alaska. We need to stand up for what is right before it’s too late.

Headliner, Michael Franti said this about the event in the Power to the Peaceful Festival 2005 DVD, which is held annually on the 9/11 weekend in San Francisco:

“We want this day and the remembrance of those lives lost on September 11 not to be a call for vengeance, but to be a call for peace, and to be a call for social justice.”

See the trailer.

This is last year’s poster of the event. This year it will be held on the 6th:

Blessed are the Peacemakers, y’all!

Wolfowitz: U.S. Confidence Hinges on Another ‘Crisis’

By

On July 16, 2008

In Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran, War

From: InfoWars

In a response to PNAC associate Robert Kagan, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz has suggested that a ‘compelling crisis’ such as Pearl Harbor or 9/11 may help bolster America’s stature in the world, which, Wolfowitz clearly hints, has been damaged by the Bush administration:

America’s future leadership role may depend even more on how threatening the world appears. Historically, that leadership role has often emerged out of a compelling crisis: Pearl Harbour, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Iran hostage crisis, Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, or the attacks of 9/11.

Such a role would imply even more U.S. troops around the world and the need to maintain and even expand the state of crisis. In other words, it would be a continuation of the so-called ‘Wolfowitz Doctrine,’ a military-first approach to world dominance where the U.S. would function unilaterally as a pre-emptive security arm for world conflicts. However, despite Wolfowitz’s pre-war boast that Iraqis would “greet us as liberators,” the phony WMDs episode has likely soured public support for such pre-emptive action.

Read Entire Article

Scott Ritter: Fools would BOMB Iran—It could look like this

By

On July 15, 2008

In Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran, War

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XQan1qo8T4]

Mellencamps Cursed for Questioning the War

By

On July 14, 2008

In People, People Cursing People, War

From: Vanity Fair

If Mellencamp has become inured to the chilly treatment that he sometimes gets from the music industry, he and his family were caught off guard by the undercurrent of hostility that rolled their way in Bloomington when he began to voice his anti-war feelings in 2003. Not long before the official start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Mellencamp wrote new lyrics for “Baltimore to Washington,” Woody Guthrie’s version of a traditional tune first popularized by the Carter family, and renamed it “To Washington.” Using pretty much the same plainspoken language found on Freedom’s Road, he sang about the tainted 2000 election and the roll-up to the war, including this verse:

And he wants to fight with many
And he says it’s not for oil
He sent out the National Guard
To police the world
From Baghdad to Washington.

The song, which was included on Mellencamp’s May 2003 album of reworked blues and folk standards, Trouble No More, made news even before it was released. In the fall Mellencamp and his wife, the supermodel and photographer Elaine Irwin-Mellencamp, landed in the headlines again when they posted an open letter on his Web site, mellencamp.com, titled, in part, “It’s Time to Take Back Our Country.” The Mellencamps called for an end to what they described as the “political ‘hijacking’ of Iraq” and the chilling effect on free speech that had crept into the national discourse. Though they were spared the kind of public thrashing that the Dixie Chicks got that March when lead singer Natalie Maines told a London concert audience that she was “ashamed the president of the United States” is from Texas, the Mellencamp family’s politics did not go unnoticed on their home turf. Elaine Irwin-Mellencamp recalls the time that she, her husband, and their sons, Hud, 12, and Speck, 11, were driving in town when a local radio station played “To Washington” and invited listeners to comment, prompting one man to call up and say, “I don’t know who I hate worse, John Mellencamp or Saddam Hussein.” Mostly, the criticism was implied in the cold stares and whispers of some of the locals whom the Mellencamps encountered on a regular basis.

A few times, the rocker’s clan found themselves on the wrong end of some drive-by mudslinging. Because their 60-acre compound, with its stucco mansion, sits on the serene Lake Monroe, Irwin-Mellencamp says a number of boaters floated near their banks and shouted obscenity-laced tirades at the house. Irwin-Mellencamp won’t forget the time that a boat carrying a profanity-spewing….

Read Entire Article

Related: An Open Letter to America: It’s Time to Take Back Our Country
by John & Elaine Mellencamp

Armchair Pilots ‘Zap & Maim’ By Remote Control From Las Vegas — Roger Waters: “The Bravery of Being Out of Range”

By

On July 13, 2008

In Ethics, War, Why they hate US

And we wonder why the world hates US.

From: CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Pilots direct remote-control aircraft from Nevada base in combat 7,500 miles away
  • New drone, “the Reaper,” carries the same bomb load as an F-16 fighter plane
  • Reapers have been flying round-the-clock patrols over Afghanistan since 2007
  • Air Force sees unmanned aircraft as the future of aerial combat

CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, Nevada (CNN) — From a desert outpost [35 miles] northwest of Las Vegas, elite fighter pilots journey to a war zone in Afghanistan, some 7,500 miles away.

It might be the world’s longest commute, except that these armchair pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada never leave the air-conditioned comfort of their command center.

Air Force pilots are employing remotely controlled fighter-bomber aircraft — known in military parlance as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs — to fly combat missions over Afghanistan, hunting for insurgents bent on undermining Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s fragile government.

This is the future of aerial combat.

Sitting in a virtual cockpit is not as exciting as flying a fighter jet, but unmanned attack-plane pilots can enjoy a normal workday schedule — more or less. Video Watch the Reaper at work »

“Seeing bad guys on the screen and watching them possibly get dispatched, and then going down to the Taco Bell for lunch, it’s kind of surreal,” says Captain Matt Dean.

Read Entire Article

Roger Waters, 1991

The Bravery of Being Out of Range

… Hey bartender over here
Two more shots
And two more beers
Sir turn up the TV sound
The war has started on the ground
Just love those laser guided bombs
They’re really great
For righting wrongs
You hit the target
And win the game
 From bars 3,000 miles away
3,000 miles away
We play the game
With the bravery of being out of range
We zap and maim
With the bravery of being out of range
We strafe the train
With the bravery of being out of range
We gain terrain
With the bravery of being out of range

Related:

Scott Ridder: Our Murderers in the Sky

Why they hate US: How would you like one of these flying over your head?

[‘why they hate US’ — Listen to his voice] Gen. Hamid Gul: We’ve slaughtered ~3,500 innocent men, women and children in Pakistan through remote control drones — “But this particular attack was the final nail in the coffin. Why did they do that?” Pakistan may now unite with China against US

We killed almost 700 Pakistan civilians in 44 REMOTE-CONTROL drone strikes in 2009. How would we like it if a country did this to US?

All of my Why They Hate US posts (It’s not “because we’re free”)

Ron Paul on U.S. Threatening to Blockade Iran—An Act of War

By

On July 11, 2008

In Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran, Ron Paul, War

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9_vpQEX5Z0]7/9/08

(video) McCain Laughing About Killing Iranians Again

By

On July 10, 2008

In 'THEY' couldn't be that EVIL??, Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran, John McCain, War, Why they hate US

From: Prison Planet

Potential next President John McCain’s sick obsession with slaughtering brown people in the Middle East betrayed itself again yesterday when he responded to a question about exporting cigarettes to Iran by saying, “maybe that’s a way of killing them.”

McCain was asked by a reporter, “We’ve learned that exports to Iran increased by tenfold during the Bush administration, biggest export was cigarettes,” to which McCain snapped back, “maybe that’s a way of killing them,” before laughing and chuckling, “I meant that as a joke.”

* * *

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKIt316Ajas]McCain “Jokes” About Killing Iranians

Uploaded by  on Jul 9, 2008

John McCain, July 8, 2008

Related:

McCain Laughs, Sings “Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran”

[2007 Video] Hillary Laughs About Bombing Iran

[2012 Video] Hillary Laughs About Bombing Iran, AGAIN!

Huckabee Thinks McCain’s “Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran” Was Funny

N.H. Debate: Candidates Mock Ron Paul – Persecuted for Righteousness!

 

Ron Paul’s Biggest Eye-Opener: ‘Christian’ Evangelicals Pushing Preemptive War in the Name of Spreading Christian ‘Love’

By

On July 7, 2008

In Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran, Ethics, False Christians Trashing America, Racism, Ron Paul, War

Alex Jones: “We’re talking…with the congressman about members of Congress talking about nuking Iran on the floor. …

Ron Paul: “To me, the biggest challenge has been and the biggest eye-opener has been in these last several years is how strongly some of our Christian evangelical groups join in.

That is so disturbing to me. And yet they do. The Christian Zionist groups are urging this on in the name of Christianity!

I mean, they didn’t learn the same Christianity that I learned. I just cannot conceive of this. And yet there are millions that way that are just pushing, pushing this war—and pushing even nuclear weapons in the name of spreading Christian love.”

Alex Jones: “Premeditated mass murder. …”

Transcribed by Jeff Fenske from The Alex Jones Show, 7/3/08

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLzupHe_HTk]Part 1 (11 minutes)

Read More

Hersh: Congress’ Gang of Eight Agreed to Bush Request to Fund Secret Operations Against Iran

By

On July 6, 2008

In Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran, George Bush Family, War

From: Democracy Now!

Congressional leaders agreed to a request from President Bush last year to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran aimed at destabilizing Iran’s leadership. This according to a new article by veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker magazine.

The operations were set out in a highly classified Presidential Finding signed by Bush which, by law, must be made known to Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and ranking members of the intelligence committees. The plan allowed up to $400 million in covert spending for activities ranging from supporting dissident groups to spying on Iran’s nuclear program.

According to Hersh, US Special Forces have been conducting cross-border operations from southern Iraq since last year. These have included seizing members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of so-called “high-value targets” who may be captured or killed.

While covert operations against Iran are not new, Hersh writes that the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command, have now been significantly expanded.

Seymour Hersh is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist. He joins us from Washington DC.

Watch/Read/Listen to the Interview

[music video] Michael Franti: Bomb the World (“Power to the Peaceful!”)

By

On July 5, 2008

In Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran, Forgiving/Grudgless/No Hate, Michael Franti, Music Videos, War

Michael Franti – Bomb the World

Please tell me the reason
Behind the colors that you fly
Love just one nation
And the whole world we divide

You won’t say you’re “sorry”
“There is no other choice”
God bless the people them
Who cannot raise their voice

We can chase down all our enemies
Bring them to their knees
We can bomb the world to pieces
But we can’t bomb it into peace

Power to the peaceful
Love to the peaceful
.

=

[God’s] love to the peaceful.

=

“Blessed are the peacemakers
for they shall be called the children of God.”

– Jesus

=

“God resists the proud [Americans],
but GIVES GRACE to the humble.”

– Jesus’ brother, James

•

Who would Jesus bomb —
or have us bomb?

•

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Michael Franti: Light Up Ya Lighter

By

On July 5, 2008

In Michael Franti, Music Videos, War

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSyYR1DrwW8]

Tell me President tell if you will
How many people does a smart bomb kill?
How many of ’em do you think we got?
The General says we never miss a shot

And we never ever ever keep a body count
We killin’ so efficiently we can’t keep count

Read More

Skousen: US Spreading Torture Doctrines and Techniques

By

On July 5, 2008

In Joel Skousen, Torture, War

World Affairs Brief, July 4, 2008. Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World.

Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief

US SPREADING TORTURE DOCTRINES AND TECHNIQUES

Sadly it is no time to celebrate liberty in America, except as an important historical footnote.  Patriotic fervor is only displayed in mindless and expensive fireworks extravaganzas mixed with country and rock concerts. Predictably, they all focus on supporting the troops in Iraq.  The general public knows little about what is really happening to our nation and most are ignorant of what made this country both free and great–strict constitutional limitations on government power.  Having dismantled those restrictions over the last 200 years our government is now becoming the Evil Empire of the world as it spreads violence abroad in the name of intervention and occupation.  At home, essential civil liberties of privacy and freedom from warrantless search and seizure are under assault by those who have falsely sworn an oath to uphold these constitutional guarantees. The dark side of government is engaged in torturing prisoners and spreading their sophisticated versions of that evil to eager tyrants in other lands. This week the news broke that the Mexican public is in an uproar over videos showing Mexican police practicing torture techniques on fellow officers in preparation for use on the public—under the watchful eye of an American advisor.  Leon city Police Chief Carlos Tornero told the AP that “the English-speaking man in the videos is a contractor from a private US security firm.”July 4, 2008 Once again, we see the increasing role of US mercenaries helping our own government spread torture while maintaining “plausible deniability.”

This week the NY Times broke the story that “…military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of ‘coercive management techniques’ for possible use on prisoners, including ‘sleep deprivation,’ ‘prolonged constraint,’ and ‘exposure.’ What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners

Read More

Poll: 44% of Americans favor torture for terrorist suspects

By

On July 5, 2008

In Ethics, The Soul of America, Torture, War

From: The Raw Story

A new poll of citizens’ attitudes about torture in 19 nations finds Americans among the most accepting of the practice. Although a slight majority say torture should be universally prohibited, 44 percent think torture of terrorist suspects should be allowed, and more than one in 10 think torture should generally be allowed.

The findings of the WorldPublicOpinion.org poll put the United States alongside countries like Russia, Egypt and the Ukraine and lagging far behind allies like Great Britain, Spain and France in how its citizens view torture.

Read Entire Article with Chart

Michael Franti & Spearhead | Children: “Hello Bonjour”

By

On July 4, 2008

In Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran, Forgiving/Grudgless/No Hate, Michael Franti, Music Videos, War

LOVE EVERYBODY!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuAahjFL-mA]Michael Franti & Spearhead

You say you’re a Christian ’cause God made you;
You say you’re a Muslim ’cause God made you;
You say you’re a Hindu and the next man a Jew;
And we all kill each other ’cause God told us to? Nah!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqYC3AnYsRQ]Children

Related: Michael Franti & Spearhead: “Hello Bonjour” in Belgium

U.S. Will Be Complicit If Israel Attacks Iran

By

On June 23, 2008

In Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran, Israel, War

From: Democracy Now!

Is Israel Preparing to Bomb Iran?

The New York Times reported Friday that Israel recently carried out a major military exercise that Pentagon officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighter planes took part in the maneuvers over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece. …

We’re joined right now by blogger, Quaker activist and veteran journalist Helena Cobban from Washington, D.C. She is a contributing editor for the Boston Review and writes regularly on the Middle East for the Christian Science Monitor and the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat. Her blog is justworldnews.org. Her latest book is called Re-Engage: America and the World After Bush.

…if they are indeed preparing—Israel is really preparing for an attack on Iran—and this is where it gets extremely scary—we, as Americans, need to understand that that has major and very, very catastrophic consequences for us, because there is no way that any kind of an Israeli bombing raid against Iran could reach the targets that they seek there without going through US-controlled airspace either in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, NATO air space in Turkey or whatever. So, the US would be complicit in that attack, would be seen as that, and would therefore be subject to reprisals, because, you know, launching a military attack on another country is an act of war. Maybe we’ve forgotten that. I guess, no, we haven’t forgotten that, because that’s what we did in Iraq in 2003.

So, if we are complicit in Israel’s act of war against Iran, then the 160,000 US military service people in Iraq are sitting ducks for Iranian reprisal. This is very scary stuff. And, you know, obviously the supply lines that support them in Iraq are long and vulnerable and mainly go through the waters of the Gulf. They could be cut off by the Iranians, but, you know, if the Iranians just did a couple of small things in the Straits of Hormuz and shut the Gulf, and that obviously also majorly affects the international oil market. So, one thing we did see when the report came out Friday was that oil prices spiked again, just with this kind of very sketchy report that the Israelis were upping the ante, upping the tension level against Iran. The oil prices spiked again.

So, this has major consequences for us as Americans. And I have a whole bunch of questions as to what was really going on. I mean, I cannot believe that anybody in the Pentagon would seriously be complicit in allowing Israel to use US planes that were given to Israel for defensive purposes only, to allow Israel to go ahead and bomb Iran, knowing that there would be, as the Iranians have promised and threatened—and we have every reason to believe them—major reprisals against everybody complicit in that attack afterwards. You know, so this is really the Israelis being very reckless in matters where it is the US that is primarily vulnerable.

Read, Watch, Listen to the Rest of the Interview

Related: Israeli Prime Minister: Bush Intends to Act On Iran Before the End of His Term. Many Say $10/Gallon Gas Would Result

Israeli Prime Minister: Bush Intends to Act On Iran Before the End of His Term. Many Say $10/Gallon Gas Would Result

By

On June 22, 2008

In Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran, George Bush Family, War

From: Consortium News

Unlike the attack on Iraq five years ago, to deal with Iran there need be no massing of troops. And, with the propaganda buildup already well under way, there need be little, if any, forewarning before shock and awe and pox – in the form of air and missile attacks – begin.

This time it will be largely the Air Force’s show, punctuated by missile and air strikes by the Navy. Israeli-American agreement has now been reached at the highest level; the armed forces planners, plotters and pilots are working out the details.

Emerging from a 90-minute White House meeting with President George W. Bush on June 4, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the two leaders were of one mind:

“We reached agreement on the need to take care of the Iranian threat. I left with a lot less question marks [than] I had entered with regarding the means, the timetable restrictions, and American resoluteness to deal with the problem. George Bush understands the severity of the Iranian threat and the need to vanquish it, and intends to act on that matter before the end of his term in the White House.”

Read Entire Article

Related: U.S. Will Be Complicit If Israel Attacks Iran

Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August?’

By

On May 28, 2008

In Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran, George Bush Family, War

From: Asia Times Online

NEW YORK – The George W Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months, an informed source tells Asia Times Online, echoing other reports that have surfaced in the media in the United States recently.

Two key US senators briefed on the attack planned to go public with their opposition to the move, according to the source, but their projected New York Times op-ed piece has yet to appear.

The source, a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that the US plans an air strike against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The air strike would target the headquarters of the IRGC’s elite Quds force. With an estimated strength of up to 90,000 fighters, the Quds’ stated mission is to spread Iran’s revolution of 1979 throughout the region.

Read Entire Article

Powerful! Jean Sara Rohe Addresses John McCain During Commencement Address

By

On May 23, 2008

In John McCain, War

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=mVPVA6k5CB0]

A brave and righteous graduate at New York’s New School University spoke (and sang) truth to power while Senator John McCain looked on before giving the same keynote address that he gave at Jerry Fawell’s Liberty University and Columbia University.

Read More

Rumsfeld On Tape: Terror Attack Could Restore Neo-Con Agenda

By

On May 19, 2008

In War

From: Jones Report

Shocking excerpts of confidential recordings recently released under the Freedom of Information Act feature former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld talking with top military analysts about how a flagging Neo-Con political agenda could be successfully restored with the aid of another terrorist attack on America.

The tape also includes a conversation where Rumsfeld and the military analysts agree on the possible necessity of installing a brutal dictator in Iraq to oversee U.S. interests.

The tapes were released as part of the investigation into the Pentagon’s “message force multipliers” program in which top military analysts were hired to propagandize for the Iraq war in the corporate media.

In attendance at the valedictory luncheon Rumsfeld hosted on December 12, 2006 were David L. Grange, Donald W. Sheppard, James Marks, Rick Francona, Wayne Downing, and Robert H. Scales, Jr. among others.

The most extraordinary exchange takes place when Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong bemoans shrinking political support for Neo-Con war plans on Capitol Hill and suggests that sympathy for the Bush administration’s agenda will only be achieved after a new terror attack.

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[video] Economic Hit Man, John Perkins: The Secret History of the American Empire — Why They Hate US

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On May 16, 2008

In America's Getting Jacked!, Ethics, Real History, The Soul of America, War, Why they hate US

Now is the time to “set things right”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTbdnNgqfs8]Part 1

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29GhXsx7-Rs]Part 2

Related:

All 8 of DemocracyNow’s interviews with key whistleblower, former economic hit man John Perkins — “The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption / How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions / Hoodwinked: Former Economic Hit Man John Perkins Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded — and How to Remake Them / etc.

Judge backs Christian soldier’s conscientious objector petition—Alaska based paratrooper previously denied by Army

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On May 14, 2008

In War

From: Anchorage Daily News

The Army should grant conscientious objector status to Pfc. Michael Barnes, a Fort Richardson-based paratrooper who had his request for that designation denied last year, U.S. Magistrate John D. Roberts concluded Tuesday.

A native of Portland, Ore., Barnes, 26, said he enlisted in the Army for five years in March 2005 with the idealistic goal of “defending freedom and helping other people in countries no one else would help.

That same year, however, while training for deployment to Iraq as part of the 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team at Fort Richardson, he grew increasingly troubled by the tales he heard from soldiers returning….

But after his unit landed in Kuwait, then Iraq, in the fall of 2006, he began to witness bad behavior firsthand….

“The cumulative evidence is that he was not acting — as the Army tried to argue — in a manipulative or an expedient fashion,” Fortier said. “He was following his conscience to a much higher calling than whatever the Army was expecting him to do.”

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China Builds Secret Nuclear Submarine Base in South China Sea

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On May 11, 2008

In China, War

From: Fox News

China has secretly built an underground nuclear submarine base in the South China Sea, posing a new threat to powers in the region — a development the Pentagon says it has known about for at least two years.

Satellite photos of the base obtained by FOX News show a large harbor and massive tunnels that defense experts say could shelter many nuclear subs. …

The secret base, known as Sanya, is located on the southern tip of Hainan Island in the South China Sea. Defense experts say the harbor feeds into waters so deep that the submarines could launch without having to surface, making it difficult to detect them from the sky.

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More Photos

Related: China preparing for nuclear war

Bush Signed Executive Order Authorizing Torture—FBI Email

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On April 18, 2008

In George Bush Family, Torture, War

From: Online Journal

President George W. Bush’s comment to ABC News — that he approved discussions that his top aides held about harsh interrogation techniques — adds credence to claims from senior FBI agents in Iraq in 2004 that Bush had signed an executive order approving the use of military dogs, sleep deprivation and other tactics to intimidate Iraqi detainees.

When the American Civil Liberties Union released the FBI e-mail in December 2004 — after obtaining it through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit — the White House emphatically denied that any such presidential executive order existed, calling the unnamed FBI official who wrote the e-mail “mistaken.”

President Bush and his representatives also have denied repeatedly that the administration condones “torture,” although senior administration officials have acknowledged subjecting “high-value” terror suspects to aggressive interrogation techniques, including the “waterboarding” — or simulated drowning — of three al-Qaeda detainees.

But the emerging public evidence suggests that Bush’s denials about “torture” amount to a semantic argument, with the administration applying a narrow definition that contradicts widely accepted standards contained in international law, including Geneva and other human rights conventions.

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