Friday, June 8, 2012
World News
Syria's original problems were Syria's alone: On the negative consequences of Western Axis interference
Syria's Insurrection Is not America's war
Patrick J. Buchanan LewRockwell.com USA June 5, 2012
In pushing for U.S. military intervention in Syria ? arming the insurgents and using U.S. air power to "create safe zones" for anti-regime forces "inside Syria's borders" ? The Washington Post invokes "vital U.S. interests" that are somehow imperiled there.
Exactly what these vital interests are is left unexplained.
For 40 years, we have lived with a Damascus regime led by either Bashar Assad or his father, Hafez Assad. Were our "vital interests" in peril all four decades?
In 1991, George H.W. Bush recruited the elder Assad into his Desert Storm coalition that liberated Kuwait. Damascus sent 4,000 troops. In gratitude, we hosted a Madrid Conference to advance a land-for-peace deal between Assad and Israel.
It failed, but it could have meant a return of the Golan Heights to Assad and Syria's return to the eastern bank of the Sea of Galilee.
We could live with that, but cannot live with Bashar?
Comes the reply: The reason is the Houla massacre, where more than 100 Syrians were slaughtered, mostly women and children, the most horrid atrocity in a 15-month war that has taken 10,000 lives.
We Americans cannot stand idly by and let this happen. ...
But in 1982, Bashar's father rolled his artillery up to the gates of Hama and, to crush an insurrection by the Muslim Brotherhood, fired at will into the city until 20,000 were dead.
What did America do? Nothing.
In Black September, 1970, Jordan's King Hussein used artillery on a Palestinian camp, killing thousands and sending thousands fleeing into Lebanon. During Lebanon's civil war from 1975 to 1990, more than 100,000 perished. In the 1980s, Iraq launched a war on Iran that cost close to a million dead.
We observed, content that our enemies were killing one another.
In 1992, Islamists in Algeria won the first round of voting and were poised to win the second. Democracy was about to produce a result undesired by the Western democracies. So Washington and Paris gave Algiers a green light to prevent the Islamists from coming to power. That Algerian civil war cost scores of thousands dead.
If Arab and Muslim peoples believe Americans are hypocrites who cynically consult their strategic interests before bemoaning Arab and Muslim victims of terror and war, do they not have a point?
As for the Post's idea of using U.S. air power to set up "safe zones" on Syrian soil, those are acts of war. What do we do if the Syrian army answers with artillery strikes on those safe zones or overruns one, inflicting a stinging defeat on the United States?
Would we accept the humiliation ? or escalate? ...
Consider the forces lining up on each side in what looks like a Syrian civil war and dress rehearsal for a regional sectarian war.
Against Assad's regime are the United States, the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida, the Turks and Saudis and Sunni states of the Persian Gulf.
On Assad's side are his 300,000-strong army, the Alawite Shia in Syria, Druze, Christians and Kurds, all of whom fear a victory of the Brotherhood, and Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.
The question for our bellicose interventionists is this:
How much treasure should be expended, how much American blood shed so the Muslim Brotherhood can depose the Assad dynasty, take power and establish an Islamist state in Syria?
"Tell me how this thing ends," said Gen. David Petraeus at the onset of our misbegotten Iraq War. If we begin providing weapons to those seeking the overthrow of Assad, as the Post urges, it will be a fateful step for this republic.
We will be morally responsible for the inevitable rise in dead and wounded from the war we will have fueled. We will have committed our prestige to Assad's downfall. As long as he survives, it will be seen as a U.S. defeat and humiliation.
And once the U.S. casualties come, the cry of the war party will come ? for victory over Assad, Hezbollah, Iran, Russia! We will be on our way into another bloody debacle in a region where there is no vital U.S. interest but perhaps oil, which these folks have to sell to survive.
Before the religious and ethnic conflicts of Europe were sorted out, it took centuries of bloodletting, and our fathers instructed us to stay out of these quarrels that were none of our business.
Syria in 2012 is even less our business.
Below: Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan, who has promoted his "six-point peace plan" as one route to resolving the violence in Syria, now concedes that his proposals are not being implemented and that the country's future will consist of "brutal suppression, massacres, sectarian violence and even all-out civil war" if it continues on its current path.
Russia dashes Kofi Annan's hope for unity on UN sanctions
David Usborne The Independent UK June 8, 2012
Kofi Annan all but acknowledged last night that his peace mission in Syria is nearing collapse, but insisted the world powers can salvage it if they overcome their divisions and step up the diplomatic effort first by threatening sanctions on Damascus for failing to implement his six-point plan.
Speaking at the United Nations in New York, Mr Annan also floated the launching of new multilateral effort to force the Syrian regime into compliance, which in turn would start a political transition and the easing out from power of President Bashar al-Assad. It would be led by a new "contact group" of UN Security Council members and regional powers such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
"For the sake of the people of Syria who are living though this nightmare, the international community must come together and act as one," Mr Annan told an emergency session of the UN General Assembly. It was a blunt message to Russia, which has resisted all moves that might lead to the removal of its ally Mr Assad.
"The process cannot be open-ended, and, the longer we wait, the more radicalised and polarised the situation will become," Mr Annan said of his peace plan. "If things do not change, the future is likely to be one of brutal repression, massacres, sectarian violence and even all-out civil war. ...
Syria faces 'all-out civil war', says Annan
Inter Press Service/Aljazeera/Asia Times Online International/Qatar/Hong Kong Dateline June 9, 2012
DOHA - Kofi Annan, the joint United Nations-Arab League envoy to Syria, has admitted that his peace plan is failing and that the country's future will consist of "brutal suppression, massacres, sectarian violence and even all-out civil war" if it continues on its current path.
In a speech to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, Annan confirmed that massacres of civilians have taken place in the towns of Houla and al-Qubayr. While not assigning blame for the mass killings, the former UN secretary general said that the government, not the armed opposition, had the "first responsibility" to halt violence.
"I must be frank and confirm that the [six-point peace] plan [proposed by Annan] is not being implemented," he said.
He said that despite urging President Bashar al-Assad to "make a strategic decision to change his path", the government's shelling
of cities had continued, and government-backed militias "seem to have free reign, with appalling consequences".
"The international community has united, but it now must take that unity to a new level," Annan said. "It must be made clear that there will be consequences if compliance is not forthcoming."
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking before Annan, said UN monitors seeking to reach al-Qubayr on Thursday, the day after the massacre there, came under fire from small arms.
Earlier, Norwegian General Robert Mood said in a statement that the observers - who are authorized by the Syrian government - were being stopped and in some cases turned back at Syrian army checkpoints.
Syria's UN envoy, Bashar Jaafari, said the government was investigating the massacres and that international television stations had broadcast false images of the victims. He accused the armed opposition of assassinations, bombings and massacres and alleged that foreign countries were funneling money to Salafist and terrorist groups.
"The government of Syria extends political reconciliation to all forces whose hands are not stained by blood," he said.
He said some UN patrols were also being stopped by civilians, and that some residents in the area of the alleged massacre said the observers would be at risk if they entered. ...
The Guardian reports today:
UN monitors on Friday entered for the first time the Syrian village where up to 78 people were reportedly killed in cold blood on Wednesday, the latest in a series of atrocities that have underlined the gravity of the escalating crisis.
The observers were met with scenes of burned-out houses, charred human remains and the clear impression that a "terrible crime" had occurred in Mazraat al-Qubair near Hama, according to a BBC correspondent following the UN team. ...
Clinton: U.S. willing to work with Russia for orderly Assad ouster
Reuters/Ha'aretz UK/Israel June 7, 2012
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said the United States was willing to work with all members of the UN Security Council, which includes Russia, on a conference on Syria's political future.
Speaking in Istanbul, Clinton urged Syria's President Bashar Assad to hand over power and leave his country, condemning a massacre near the town of Hama that was blamed on his supporters as "simply unconscionable."
Regarding a possible conference over Syria's future, Clinton said it would have to start with the premise that Assad and his government give way to a democratic government, she told a news conference.
"We are disgusted by what we are seeing," she said, referring to continuing violence in Syria. ...
Russia censures Saudi Arabia, Qatar for funding Syrian rebels
Press TV/Tehran Times Iran Webposted June 8, 20122
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin speaks after members of the Security Council of United Nations voted unanimously to adopt the Syria Observer Mission Resolution authorizing 300 observers to be sent to Syria, Saturday, April 21, 2012. Photo: AP files
The Russian Ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, has censured Saudi Arabia and Qatar for providing finances and weapons to armed Syrian opposition groups.
?We hear Saudi Arabia and Qatar openly speaking about their financing of the armed opposition and supplying weapons to the armed opposition? So, we do not like that,? Churkin said on Thursday.
Churkin also voiced concern regarding the latest massacre in Syria's Hama Province in which tens of ?people on the side of the [Syrian] government were killed by opposition.?
The Russian ambassador then expressed opposition to the U.S. and its allies for attempting to sideline Iran, adding that Tehran should be included in efforts to peacefully resolve the crisis in Syria.
This is while joint UN-Arab League envoy to Damascus Kofi Annan has highlighted the role of Iran in helping to end the crisis. He also warned against foreign intervention in Syria, saying such a move would only intensify the violence.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also urged the opposition to stop killing Syrian civilians. ...
A Syrian government investigation into the massacre states that anti-Damascus armed groups were responsible for the massacre.
The head of the inquiry, Brigadier General Qassem Jamal Suleiman said that between 600 and 800 armed terrorists used heavy machinery to carry out the attacks.
The Syrian president has also described the Houla massacre as an ?ugly crime.?
Also on Wednesday in the central village of al-Qubeir in the Hama Province, a second massacre took place. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has put the civilian death toll at about 55, down from the foreign-based Syrian National Council?s claims of 100 dead.
Syria has rejected a report by the opposition council that alleges security forces killed dozens of people in Hama.
?What a few media have reported on what happened in al-Qubeir, in the Hama region, is completely false,? the Syrian government said in a televised statement on Thursday. ...
Posted at: Friday, June 08, 2012 - 06:57 PM -- Posted by: Jim Scott -- Permalink: (#)
Commentary
On Israel and the prospects for a Middle Eastern proliferation of peace and nonproliferation of WMD
Below: Akiva Eldar is the chief political columnist and an editorial writer for Ha'aretz.
A non-nuclear Middle East
Akiva Eldar The National Interest USA April 12, 2012
Whenever I visit my local sports club in order to get away from the Iranian crisis and the frozen peace process, someone always bothers me with questions such as: "Are we going to attack Iran?" or, "Is there going to be a war?" The manager asked me once, seriously, whether he should remove the equipment from the shelter and stock it with mineral water. I was never asked, "Is there going to be peace with the Palestinians?" or, "Are we going to freeze the settlements in the Occupied Territories?" These days, fear of another war is much stronger in Israel than hope for peace. ...
In 1991, President George H. W. Bush tried to attach this nonproliferation vision to the Middle East peace process then unfolding in Madrid. The United States and Russia cosponsored a multilateral committee on arms control (along with multilateral committees on water, refugees, environment and economic cooperation). Unfortunately, President Clinton embraced the separate bilateral negotiations in the Israel-Palestinian track and the Israeli-Syrian track. Thus, he ignored the multilateral tracks. The arms-control committee evaporated with the deterioration of the Oslo process in the aftermath of the 2000 Palestinian uprising.
The 2002 Arab Peace Initiative (API), which offers Israel peace and normal relations with Arab countries in return for territories and a just solution to the refugee problem, represented another basis for a comprehensive solution. The API is mentioned in the Middle East Road Map that President George W. Bush presented in 2003. A few months before that, the API was endorsed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in its annual meeting, which took place in Teheran. It would be difficult for Iran to turn down an American-Israeli plan that ended forty-five years of occupation of what they perceive as Muslim land. In addition, they would be able to take credit for the establishment of a Palestinian State, ending the Jewish annexation of the holy sites in Jerusalem and finding a solution to the Palestinian problem. The plan would leave the door open for a settlement with Syria and Lebanon on the basis of territories for peace and security arrangements.
The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty conference, scheduled to be held in Helsinki in December, offers Israel and Iran a platform for building the pillars of proliferation of peace and nonproliferation of WMD. ...
The end of Israeli impunity
Akiva Eldar The National Interest USA June 7, 2012
Left: Menachem Begin, Jimmy Carter and Anwar el-Sadat at Camp David, 1978.
Mohamed Morsi, chairman of the Egyptian Freedom and Justice Party, and Ahmed Shafik, a former prime minister, will both seek public support on the June 16?17 runoff election. They have little in common. Mr. Morsi represents the theocratic agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood, while Mr. Shafik, who belongs to the old guard of President Mubarak's regime, offers a secular program. Yet there is one theme that unites the two finalists, as well as most other candidates who were dropped in the first round: they all strongly criticize the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and Israel?s settlement policy. Both have declared that if Israel will not get involved in serious negotiations with the Palestinians on the two-state solution, Egypt will feel free to review the Camp David accord, signed in September 1978 by President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin.
It is too early to predict what they mean by "reviewing" the accords. It will be difficult to cool further the diplomatic, cultural and economic relationship between the countries. Relations have been nearly frozen since Mubarak?s removal from office. A long-standing deal under which Israel was supplied with Egyptian natural gas is practically dead. The Israeli embassy in Cairo was ransacked by an angry mob last September. Israeli journalists are not allowed to visit Egypt, and very few businessmen dare to enter the country. On a different level, Egypt is leading the Arab diplomatic campaign calling on the international community to force Israel to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Since Egypt and Israel have a mutual interest in preventing Al Qaeda from penetrating into the Sinai Peninsula, it is unlikely that the new government in Cairo will cut the lines of communication between Egypt and Israeli intelligence. The new president will learn soon enough that a decision to violate the peace treaty with Israel will spur a decision by the U.S. Congress to cut the generous economic support that Egypt has been enjoying as a result of this treaty. Added tensions between Cairo and Jerusalem could also affect Egypt's access to American weapons.
Knowing that, Israel takes into consideration that even after more than thirty years, the peace treaty with Egypt remains a contract between leaderships and not between the two peoples. Now that the Egyptian people have a voice, their leaders will have to listen. Since the economic situation in Egypt makes it difficult for the leadership to feed the people with more than bread and hummus, they feed them with free hatred of Israel and its American allies.
Unfortunately, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's settlement policy?and President Obama's helplessness to influence it?makes it easy to market animosity against Israel. A brief look at the Palestinian Chapter of the 1978 Camp David Accords, accompanied by a comparison with the 2012 map of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, demonstrates that this document has become irrelevant.
For instance, in 1978, Israel and Egypt agreed there should be transitional arrangements for the West Bank and Gaza over a period not exceeding five years. President Jimmy Carter was also a witness to Israel's written commitment to withdraw its military government and civilian administration as soon as a self-governing authority could be freely elected by the inhabitants of these areas. At this stage, Israeli armed forces were to withdraw into specified security locations.
The Camp David Accords drew a clear time line of no more than five years for the negotiations that were to resolve, among other matters, the location of the boundaries and security arrangements. It stressed, "The solution from the negotiations must also recognize the legitimate right of the Palestinian peoples and their just requirements." The parties agreed that Egypt and Israel would work together and with other interested parties to establish mutually acceptable procedures for a prompt, just and permanent resolution to the refugee problem.
Exactly thirty years ago, American efforts to facilitate autonomy talks between Israel and Egypt were sidetracked by the outbreak of the June 1982 Lebanon war. Some of the ideas, such as a five-year interim period with delayed negotiations on the final status settlement, were incorporated into the 1993?95 Oslo accords. However, eighteen years after the Oslo accords created the Palestinian authority, Israel controls of 62 percent of the West Bank (Area C) and 100 percent of East Jerusalem, while maintaining a full closure of the Gaza Strip.
Since Israel signed the Camp David Accords, it has shown little intention of following up the Sinai withdrawal with redeployment from the West bank. On the contrary?while in 1978 there were some twenty-one thousand settlers in forty small settlements in the West Bank, today there are more than three hundred and thirty thousand settlers in 146 settlements, including three cities, and three thousand people in small, illegal outposts. Most Israeli governments encouraged Jews to move to the occupied territories by offering them cheap housing and other benefits, as well as by building a number of industrial zones and a college. ...
Below: Bruce Riedel is a senior fellow in the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. A career CIA officer, he has advised four presidents on Middle East and South Asian issues in the White House on the staff of the NSC.
Israel's military secret
Bruce Riedel The National Interest USA June 7, 2012
The not-so-secret secret is now out?Israel has U-boat submarines that can launch nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. The Israeli nuclear arsenal is a triad?it can launch nuclear war from American-built F-15s, the French-origin Jericho missile and German-built Dolphin-class U-boats. It has a survivable second-strike capability and can project power far beyond its immediate environment.
Der Spiegel, the German news magazine, broke the story after extensive interviews with German and Israeli sources. Long rumored to be nuclear-delivery systems, the underwater fleet Israel has acquired over two decades is now clearly nuclear equipped. ... Berlin knows what it is doing.
The Israeli press has picked up the story now that the foreign press has put it out. That is consistent with Israel's long-standing policy of not confirming its nuclear arsenal. The timing of the leak, though, is probably no coincidence, as tensions with Iran are building again. Israel may well be sending Iran a message that retaliation for an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities could lead to a dangerous escalation in which Israel holds the upper hand. ...
In short, Israel is the regional military superpower. The Arab Spring is demolishing the capabilities of Iran's key ally, Syria. Hezbollah is in danger of losing its Syrian backers, and Lebanon is in danger of slipping into another civil war exported from Damascus, which would keep Hezbollah preoccupied. The balance of power tilts decisively toward Israel, which is a success story of American diplomacy. ...
Posted at: Friday, June 08, 2012 - 02:50 PM -- Posted by: Jim Scott -- Permalink: (#) Commentary
Commentary: When false flags don't fly
"When False Flags Don't Fly"
James Corbett The Corbet Report USA April 19, 2010
This page includes embedded links and an embedded video (7:34).
Those who have studied history know that nothing invigorates and empowers an authoritarian regime more than a spectacular act of violence, some sudden and senseless loss of life that allows the autocrat to stand on the smoking rubble and identify himself as the hero. It is at moments like this that the public?still in shock from the horror of the tragedy that has just unfolded before them?can be led into the most ruthless despotism: despotism that now bears the mantle of "security."
Acts of terror and violence never benefit the average man or woman. They only ever benefit those in positions of power.
This is why Nero fiddled while Rome burned: it gave him a chance to throw the Christians to the lions and rebuild the capital of the Roman Empire in his own image.
This is why Hearst and the warmongers of the emerging American Empire were delighted by the destruction of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor: it gave them the excuse they needed in order to rouse the public into supporting the Spanish-American War.
This is why Israel attacked the U.S.S. Liberty in 1967 during the Six Day War, strafing and torpedoing it relentlessly for hours in a vain attempt to send it to the bottom: the Israelis believed that the loss of the Liberty could be blamed on Egypt and draw the Americans into war.
This is why there are hundreds of documented examples of governments staging attacks in order to blame them on their political enemies. In every civilization, in every culture, in every historical period, authoritarians have known that spectacular acts of violence help to further consolidate their own power and control. And sadly, throughout history there have been all too many willing to allow attacks to occur, to pretend that attacks have occurred or even to attack their own population in order to further their political agenda.
To think that such staged provocations and false flag attacks no longer occur would be as unrealistic as believing that human nature itself has changed, that powerful people no longer seek to increase their power, that influence is never used for deceit or manipulation, that lies are no longer told to satisfy greed or slake the thirst for control. It is to believe that our society is immuned from those things that we have seen in every other society in every other era. In short, it is a dangerous delusion. ...
And now we see the same build-up to a false flag event taking place that we saw in 1995. At that time the U.S. had a corporate media desperate to fling mud at anyone concerned by the actions of their government, and it had a government that was desperately unpopular in the face of growing dissatisfaction. Today we see the exact same factors at play.
If anything, the situation today is worse than it was in the run-up to the Oklahoma City Bombing....
Related: Clinton inflates terror threat, contradicting data
John Glaser Antiwar.com News USA June 07, 2012
Visit this page for its embedded links.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said the threat of al-Qaeda and terrorism is spreading and remains imminent, even as the data says otherwise, suggesting she inflated the threat. ... Clearly, Clinton was engaging in some major threat inflation, as all people in positions of high authority do to maintain their power. ...
Remembering USS Liberty at 'sad little gathering'
Bryant Jordan Military.com USA June 8, 2012
On Friday, Patricia Blue-Rousakis plans to be at Arlington National Cemetery where she has spent many June 8ths for the past 15 years.
There, she?ll join with a handful of survivors of the 1967 attack on the surveillance ship USS Liberty, which was struck by Israeli air and naval forces. The group will hear a retired chaplain say a prayer, visit with those in attendance -- some, like herself, who lost family members on the Liberty -- and then go off to lunch in Alexandria, Va.
But even after so many years, and knowing full well that the topic of the Liberty is widely viewed as poisonous, the visitors still note the absence of political and military officials at the observance.
?We talk about it among ourselves,? said Blue-Rousakis, whose first husband, Alan Blue, was a National Security Agency linguist on the ship. He was among the 34 men killed and 174 wounded in the attack.
?Of the family members and the survivors, every single one of us at one time or another has invited our representative from [the House] and the Senate. And no one has ever shown up. No one. It?s a very sad little gathering.?
It?s just not the politicians, she said.
Forty-five years after the attack, no uniformed officers are expected to attend the ceremony.
?They won?t do it. They absolutely will not do it,? she said.
The lightly armed American spy ship was strafed, napalmed and torpedoed by Israeli air and naval forces for more than an hour in broad daylight during the Six-Day War. But for a crewman gerry-rigging a radio to get a message out to the fleet, many Liberty survivors believe they would have been sunk with all hands.
President Lyndon Johnson accepted Israel?s apology for the attack, but it has remained hotly controversial ever since, a lightning rod for conspiracy theorists. Alternative theories about Israel?s attack -- about it being deliberate; about cover-ups -- have made the topic of the Liberty too radioactive for members of Congress or Pentagon leaders.
Journalist and author James Scott, whose father survived the attack, wrote in Attack on the Liberty that Johnson believed the attack was deliberate. But he let Israel off the hook because he feared ?alienating? American Jewish leaders, from whom he was getting ?pressure? for escalating the war in Vietnam.
...
The man with the Israeli accent?USS LIBERTY survivor?s life threatened by Mossad on American soil while Uncle Sam yawns
Mark Glenn The Ugly Truth USA June 8, 2012
One would think that in this post 9/11 age that a direct, face-to-face threat against the life of a decorated American war hero by someone claiming to be an agent working for a Middle Eastern country tied to previous acts of terrorism against the US would rouse some concern.
That is of course, unless the country from which this foreign agent hails is Israel and the war hero being threatened is a survivor of the USS LIBERTY, attacked by the Jewish state in 1967, leading to the deaths of 34 American servicemen.
As surreal as it sounds (again, in this post 9/11 age) this nevertheless is exactly what transpired to Phillip F. Tourney, decorated war hero and survivor of Israel?s deliberate and pre-meditated attack upon his ship USS LIBERTY 43 years ago, when on the evening of Friday, August 6, he was verbally threatened by a foreign national claiming to work for the government of Israel.
No stranger to threats, Tourney has been subjected over the years to a smorgasboard of such business resulting from his refusal to remain silent concerning the deliberate attack on his ship 43 years ago and the subsequent cover-up nursed along every day since. ... What makes this most recent threat more ominous in its nature (and indicating that the same interests responsible for murdering his shipmates 43 years ago are beginning to take Tourney?s ?activism? these days more serious than before) is that this time it took place in a manner ?up close and personal,? meaning in a face-to-face encounter in the lounge of a Holiday Inn located in Southern California. ...
Several likely factors as to why Israel has suddenly taken such an interest (and gotten nervous) about the activities of USS LIBERTY survivor Phil Tourney can be summed up as follows? ...
Furthermore, now that ?respectable? people from within the US intelligence community such as former CIA analyst Ray McGovern and former CIA agent Phillip Giraldi have begun speaking about the LIBERTY in the kind of clear, open language that should have encompassed its discussion years ago, it is no longer relegated as the stomping grounds of ?anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists? and ?nut-jobs?, something that for obvious reasons would have Israel worried.
Last is the fact Americana Pictures has just finished the first draft of a screenplay based loosely and not-so-loosely on the events as recounted in Tourney?s new book. The president of Americana Pictures, Merlin Miller, a graduate of West Point Academy, in addition to having spent many years working in Hollywood has also directed and produced several of his own films and has now made the project of producing and directing a new film telling the story of what took place with Israel?s attack on the USS LIBERTY his main priority.
...
Posted at: Friday, June 08, 2012 - 01:44 PM -- Posted by: Jim Scott -- Permalink: (#) Thursday, June 7, 2012
Commentary
Why are Twinkies cheaper than carrots? & Homesweet, homegrown
The good news is that people are waking up, and you can join in the movement! Increasing numbers of people across partisan lines are calling for government policy to stop supporting the loudest lobbyists, and to start supporting the health of the population. - John Robbins
Why are Twinkies cheaper than carrots?
John Robbins Huffington Post USA/Canada June 1, 2012
Visit this page for its embedded links.
Why is Coca-Cola often more affordable than clean water? Why are candy bars and cigarettes often more readily available than fresh fruits and vegetables?
If you want to eat healthfully, you have to fight an uphill battle. Why are government subsidies pushing in the wrong direction?
Who would it hurt if we enacted policies that actually encouraged the foods that are healthiest for people and for our world? Who opposes the efforts to make it easier, rather than harder, for people to make healthy food choices?
As I describe in my new book <iNo Happy Cows, agrichemical companies, factory farms and junk food manufacturers are quite happy with things the way they are. Thanks to their lobbying clout, government policies consistently favor the financial interests of these special interests over public health, even though the result is trillions of dollars in additional health care expenses.
Here's an example: In just the last two years, 24 states have considered legislation that would place a tax on soft drinks. These "soda taxes" would discourage consumption of drinks high in sugar, thus reducing obesity and health care costs. And they would also raise money that could be used to subsidize healthier foods. But in every single state, the legislation has been defeated. PepsiCo Inc., the Coca-Cola Company, and the American Beverage Association have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to determine the outcome.
"In the political arena, one side is winning the war on child obesity," a new Reuters report on the food lobby begins. "The side with the fattest wallets."
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, perhaps the best-financed lobbying force for healthier food, spent about $70,000 lobbying last year -- roughly what those opposing stricter guidelines on sugary sodas in the U.S. spent every 13 hours. ...
In a national poll last year, 78 percent said making nutritious and healthy foods more affordable and accessible should be a top priority in the farm bill. But that's not what's on the table in this year's "agri-business as usual" farm bill.
Kari Hamerschlag, Senior Food and Agriculture Analyst for the Environmental Working Group, explains that the current proposal would actually "slash programs for conservation, nutrition, rural development and beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers."
For example, funding for research in organic farming would be cut to almost nothing, while corn growers, who have received $73.8 billion in subsidies in the last 15 years, would get even more now. Subsidized GMO corn is used to produce cheap high-fructose corn syrup, a substance that even Vice President Joe Biden says is more likely to kill an American than terrorism.
This heavily subsidized genetically modified corn is also fed to livestock in factory farms and feedlots -- at unfairly reduced prices.
"Factory farms pose a serious public health hazard, so why are they subsidized by public money?" asks Food Revolution Summit speaker Dr. Neal Barnard. "These facilities pump out high-fat, high-cholesterol meat products and often pollute waterways -- yet they also receive generous subsidies under the Farm Bill. We want Congress to stop rewarding facilities that endanger public health." ...
Related:
A guide to the sweet and simple life
Claire Thompson Grist USA June 1, 2012
Visit this page for its embedded links.
Robyn Jasko started her blog Grow Indie as a way to offer a guide to easy, DIY garden and cooking projects. (It?s part of the goindie.com network, which she and her husband created to encourage the support of local, independent businesses.) Now, Jasko has put together a book, inspired by information on her website, called Homesweet Homegrown: How to Grow, Make and Store Food, No Matter Where You Live. A slim paperback sweetly illustrated by Jennifer Biggs? drawings of vegetables and raised beds, Homesweet Homegrown gives instructions so straightforward they made even this brown-thumbed author feel a little less daunted ? excited, even ? by the concept of growing some legit food.
The book is neatly divided into chapters titled ?Know,? ?Start,? ?Grow,? ?Plant,? ?Plan,? ?Make,? ?Eat,? and ?Store,? with growing tips and recipes organized in alphabetical lists of vegetables. It also includes easy-to-decipher charts of seed germination times and companion plants. We caught up with Jasko recently to hear more about the book. ...
Posted at: Thursday, June 07, 2012 - 10:00 PM -- Posted by: Jim Scott -- Permalink: (#) Agriculture
On the need for structural change?a paradigm shift. Food sovereignty and food integrity: Comennts on pension funds and corportions
Pension funds' investments threaten food sovereignty
Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero ALAI, Latin America in Movement International June 6, 2012
Researchers and development NGO's warn of a disturbing trend that does not bode well for food sovereignty: the seizure of vast extensions of agricultural lands in the global South by emerging states and private investors.
GRAIN, a Europe-based non-governmental organization, maintains an online database of 416 major land grabs in 66 countries that cover a total of 35 million hectares. It shows that the lands of Mozambique, one of the world's poorest and most underdeveloped countries, are targeted by investors from Brasil, China, India, Singapore, France, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, England and South Africa. And the most fertile lands of Ethiopia, a country that is sadly famous for its famines, are being seized by companies from another country famous for its famines: India. Indian companies such as Almidha, ARS Agrofoods, BHO, Chadha Agro, Karuturi, Neha, Rashtriya Kissan Sangathan, Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. and Sannati Agro, among others, are using Ethiopia's finest farm lands to produce export crops, from soy, tomatoes and wheat, to rice, cotton and corn. Ethiopia has also received similar investments from the United States (B&D Food Corp.), Saudi Arabia (Al Amoudi), China, Egypt, Germany (Acazis AG), and the Netherlands (Africa Juice).
South America is also a major destination for the new land grabbers. The Argentina-based Cresud corporation has 142,000 hectares in Paraguay, where it produces mostly sunflower and soy. It also controls over 620,000 hectares in Brazil- mostly for soy and cattle- through its controlling stake in the Brasil Agro corporation.
In Peru there's South Korea's Ecoamerica, which has 72,000 hectares for the production of lumber and beef, and the US-based Maple Energy, which makes ethanol from sugar cane. In Uruguay, farm land is being grabbed by investors from Argentina, Denmark, France, United States (George Soros' Adecoagro), and Singapore (Olam). And Colombia's lands are the object of investments from Argentina, Brazil, China, Israel (Merhav Group), Spain (Grupo Poligrow), and the United States (Black River Asset Management).
One of the most surprising and little known aspects of this land grab phenomenon is the important participation of pension funds. Worldwide, pension funds manage $23 trillion dollars, of which $100 billion are believed to be invested in commodities, and of that, $5 to $15 billion goes into the purchase of farm land. This last figure is expected to double by 2015.
According to 2010 figures, the world's largest pension fund is that of the Japanese government ($1.31 trillion), followed by the Norwegian government's ($475 billion). The world's top ten list includes two funds from California. The state employees' CalPERS is #6 on the list, with $198 billion, and the public school teachers' fund CALSTRS is in eighth place, with $130 billion. The ranks of the global top twenty include funds from Canada, the Netherlands, South Korea, Denmark (ATP), South Africa (GEPF), Malaysia, New York City, New York State, and that of the employees of General Motors. Some of the top pension funds are already known to be investing in land grabs. ...
Related: Meet the corporate front groups fighting to make sure you can't know what's in your food
Alexis Baden-Mayer and Ronnie Cummins Mercola.com USA June 2012
What do a former mouthpiece for tobacco and big oil, a corporate-interest PR flack, and the regional director of a Monsanto-funded tort reform group have in common?
They?re all part of the anti-labeling PR team that will soon unleash a massive advertising and PR campaign in California, designed to scare voters into rejecting the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Acti.
In November, California voters will vote ?yes? or ?no? on a law to require mandatory labeling of all genetically engineered ingredients in processed foods, and ban the routine industry practice of mislabeling foods containing genetically engineered ingredients as ?natural.? Polls show that nearly 90 percent of the state?s voters plan to vote ?yes.? But when November rolls around, will voter support still be strong? Not if the biotech, agribusiness, and food manufacturers industries can help it.
It?s estimated that the opposition will spend $60 - $100 million to convince voters that genetically engineered foods are perfectly safeii. They?ll try to scare voters into believing that labeling will make food more expensive, that it will spark hundreds of lawsuits against small farmers and small businesses, and that it will contribute to world hunger.
None of this is true. On the contrary, studies suggest just the opposite.
Here?s what is true: The opposition has lined up some heavy-hitters and industry-funded front groups -- masquerading as ?grassroots? organizations -- to help spin their anti-labeling propaganda machine. You have the right to know what?s in your food. You also have the right to know who is working tirelessly to prevent you from ever having that right ? and who is signing their paychecks. Here?s a partial lineup of hired guns and organizations behind the anti-labeling advertising blitz soon to hit the California airwaves: ...
Posted at: Thursday, June 07, 2012 - 07:39 PM -- Posted by: Jim Scott -- Permalink: (#) Science & Technology
Is humanity pushing Earth past a tipping point?
Below: This article requires payment to read in full. The preview allows full access to author credentials and affiliations and to other relevant information about the paper's preparation.
"Approaching a state shift in Earth?s biosphere". Article preview
Nature USA Volume 486, pages 52?58 Published online June 6, 2012 and in print June 7, 2012
...
Localized ecological systems are known to shift abruptly and irreversibly from one state to another when they are forced across critical thresholds. Here we review evidence that the global ecosystem as a whole can react in the same way and is approaching a planetary-scale critical transition as a result of human influence. The plausibility of a planetary-scale ?tipping point? highlights the need to improve biological forecasting by detecting early warning signs of critical transitions on global as well as local scales, and by detecting feedbacks that promote such transitions. It is also necessary to address root causes of how humans are forcing biological changes.
...
Item: Is humanity pushing Earth past a tipping point?
Brandon Keim Wired Science USA June 6, 2012
'There have been big, planetary shifts before. We can see it coming. That's the difference.' Visit this page for its embeddd links.
Could human activity push Earth?s biological systems to a planet-wide tipping point, causing changes as radical as the Ice Age?s end ? but with less pleasant results, and with billions of people along for a bumpy ride?
It?s by no means a settled scientific proposition, but many researchers say it?s worth considering ? and not just as an apocalyptic warning or far-fetched speculation, but as a legitimate question raised by emerging science.
?There are some biological realities we can?t ignore,? said paleoecologist Anthony Barnosky of the University of California, Berkeley. ?What I?d like to avoid is getting caught by surprise.?
In ?Approaching a state shift in Earth?s biosphere,? published June 6 in Nature, Barnosky and 21 co-authors cite 100 papers in summarizing what?s known about environmental tipping points.
While the concept was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell?s accounts of sudden, widespread changes in society, the underlying mathematics ? which won physicist Kenneth Wilson a Nobel Prize in 1982 ? have far-reaching implications.
In the last few decades, scientists have found tipping behaviors in various natural environments, from locale-scale ponds and coral reefs to regional systems like the Sahara desert, which until 5,500 years ago was a fertile grassland, and perhaps even the Amazon basin.
Common to these examples is a type of transformation not described in traditional ideas of nature as existing in a static balance, with change occurring gradually. Instead, the systems seem to be dynamic, ebbing and flowing within a range of biological parameters.
Stress those parameters ? with fast-rising temperatures, say, or a burst of nutrients ? and systems are capable of sudden, feedback loop-fueled reconfiguration.
According to some researchers, that?s what happened when life?s diversity exploded in an eyeblink 540 million years ago, or much more recently when a glacier-chilled Earth became in a couple thousand years the temperate garden that cradled human civilization.
But while the Cambrian explosion and Holocene warming were sparked by natural, planet-wide changes to ocean chemistry and solar intensity, say Barnosky and colleagues, there?s a new force to consider: 7 billion people who exert a combined influence usually associated with planetary processes.
Human activity now dominates 43 percent of Earth?s land surface and affects twice that area. One-third of all available fresh water is diverted to human use. A full 20 percent of Earth?s net terrestrial primary production, the sheer volume of life produced on land every year, is harvested for human purposes. Extinction rates compare to those recorded during the demise of dinosaurs and average temperatures will likely be higher in 2070 than at any point in human evolution.
Scientists informally call our current geological age the ?Anthropocene,? and to Barnosky?s group this means we?re strong enough to tip the planet, radically changing regional climates and ecologies. ...
Posted at: Thursday, June 07, 2012 - 02:56 PM -- Posted by: Jim Scott -- Permalink: (#) Wednesday, June 6, 2012
National News
As the world aligns for another global 'hot war' on the 68th anniversary of D-Day, we mark that anniversary and the fight to re-establish veterans' rights in Canada
Intro: Veteran vividly recalls deadly D-Day invasion
Reg Chapman CBS Minnesota USA June 5, 2012
This item includes an embedded video interview with Captain Harper (2:31).
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ? Wednesday marks the reality that it?s been 68 years since 92-year-old Bill Harper and his American and Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy.
Artillery Capt. Harper was 24 years old when he survived one of the most brutal days of World War II.
?It?s just as clear as the day it happened,? Harper said.
It was a day Harper ? who has won two Purple Hearts for his service ? said is hard to forget.
?It was an awful day,? Harper said, part of the first wave to take Omaha Beach. ?The waves were 6-feet high. And we went over the side of the ship, down rope ladders into the lcvps.?
Within minutes, Harper had his first brush with death.
?When I came out of the lcvp, I stepped into about a 3-foot deep hole,? Harper said.
Harper said the water was over his head as his heavy gear held him down.
?My sergeant held his carbine out and I grabbed it,? he said. ?And he pulled me out of the hole, and we started running across the beach at that point.?
As they ran, he noticed the enemy was not far away.
?The Germans were sitting up on top of looking over, watching every move we made,? Harper said. ?And any time anybody moved, he got shot.?
Harper says that?s what happened to his sergeant, the man he credits for saving his life.
?Three feet along side of me he got hit,? Harper said. ?And I didn?t.?
Harper?s sergeant was one of more than 6,600 casualties that day, but not the first to perish in front of his eyes.
?I started to move up the beach, and I got about 100 yards up the beach and I found a captain that I knew,? Harper said. ?I laid down on the beach to talk to him and no sooner got stretched out then a motor round came in and it hit about 6 inches from him. It blew him in two pieces. It wounded me. I really feel blessed. I just don?t know how I made it ? the number of men that were killed that day.?
Harper was wounded twice that day. ...
Items: When are we going to say that the New Veterans Charter is a complete failure? Mike Blais, the president of Canadian Veterans Advocacy
Harper marks 68th anniversary of D-Day
Kate Adams BayToday.ca Ontario, Canada June 5, 2012
Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued the following statement today to mark the 68th anniversary of D-Day:
"Tomorrow we mark the 68th anniversary of D-Day, the allied invasion of Normandy that marked the beginning of the march toward the liberation of Europe.
On the morning of June 6, 1944, over 150,000 members of Allied forces from Canada, the United States, Great Britain, Free France and Poland landed on the northern coast of France with one goal in mind: to break Nazi Germany's stranglehold on the continent.
With great courage and determination, 25,000 members of the Canadian military took part in the largest amphibious assault the world has ever witnessed, playing a major role in the mission's success. The seizing of Juno Beach would become one of Canada's most renowned military victories and was a key part in one of the greatest battles of the Second World War.
As we mark this anniversary, we commemorate the thousands of brave and selfless Canadians - heroes one and all - who fought so tirelessly, and we pay tribute to those soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice.
This day also affords us an opportunity to thank the members of the Canadian Armed Forces who continue to serve with great pride and distinction around the world in areas including Afghanistan, as well as their families who support them. Let us also reflect upon the great sacrifices they make every day to defend and uphold our most cherished values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
On behalf of all Canadians, I wish to express our most sincere and heartfelt thanks to all our veterans. Through their valour, courage and selflessness, they have helped forge our place in the history books and shape our great country.
Lest we forget."
Nobody gets a stiffer 'hard on' at the thought of war than Stephen Harper (except maybe John Baird). Harper's government has committed a lot of money to upgrade and expand the Canadian military, glorified our warriors when they go off to fight at his command and has said all the right things when some of our troops come home dead. Harper's foreign policy indicates he is ready to go to war on behalf of the Western Axis at any and every opportunity. "This day also affords us an opportunity to thank the members of the Canadian Armed Forces who continue to serve with great pride and distinction around the world in areas including Afghanistan, as well as their families who support them. Let us also reflect upon the great sacrifices they make every day to defend and uphold our most cherished values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. On behalf of all Canadians, I wish to express our most sincere and heartfelt thanks to all our veterans. Through their valour, courage and selflessness, they have helped forge our place in the history books and shape our great country." Really, Mr. Harper? Then why do you diss the physically maimed and mentally traumatized? Even as you send more and more troops off to war, even as your rhetoric grows more belligerent, your government has been fundamentally and disgracefully altering veterans' benefits and reducing payments?by up to 50% since 2006.
Ex-soldiers protest vets benefits outside Parliament on D-Day anniversary
Murray Brewster The Canadian Press/Global News Canada June 6, 2012
This item contains a video report on the plight of disabled Canadian veterans (2:19).
OTTAWA - A second front in the war over veterans benefits opened up Wednesday as ex-soldiers rallied on Parliament Hill and the families of two young men killed in Afghanistan learned their discrimination complaints are likely headed for a human rights tribunal.
The demonstration, on the 68th anniversary of the historic D-Day landings, was aimed at the federal government's relatively new policy of paying injured soldiers lump-sum compensation for wounds and injuries, rather than life-time pensions.
At the same time came news that the Canadian Human Rights Commission is deciding what forum will hear the complaints of the families of two single soldiers killed in the line of duty, neither of them eligible for a $250,000 death benefit paid to married troops.
Errol Cushley, the father of Pte. William Cushley, and Beverley Skalrud, the mother of Pte. Braun Scott Woodfield, say they've been told that human rights investigators found merit in their complaints about the death stipend, which was instituted as part of an overhaul of veterans benefits in 2006.
The commission is currently weighing its options, which could include sending it to mediation or to a public tribunal hearing.
"I tend to look at it as: How ironic is this?" Errol Cushley told The Canadian Press in an interview Wednesday. "They give their life for a country, to help another country, and their own country doesn't recognize their human rights, or civil rights."
The rising discontent follows a major concession by the Harper government last week when it announced it would not appeal a court ruling on the clawback of insurance benefits for disabled veterans. ...
Dennis Mangue's disabled veterans' pension clawback victory unchallenged by federal government
Alison Auld Canadian Press/Huffington Post Canada May 29, 2012
HALIFAX - A disabled veteran who launched a class-action lawsuit against the federal government said he is thrilled Ottawa will respect a Federal Court ruling and stop clawing back money from veterans' pensions.
Dennis Manuge broke down Tuesday as he thanked his lawyers, federal ministers and thousands of veterans he says will now see repayment of possibly $500 million that had been cut from their monthly payments over a period of nearly 30 years.
"This has been a very difficult experience for Canada's disabled veterans, including me," he said, with his 17-month-old daughter and wife looking on.
"It is a relief that we are one step closer to being reimbursed."
Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney announced earlier in the day that they would not appeal the decision handed down this month that found the government was acting illegally by reducing veteran's long-term disability benefits.
The ruling was a powerful victory for roughly 6,000 veterans, some of whom have seen their payments slashed by thousands of dollars a month. ...
Asked why it took a court case to address complaints from veterans across the country who said they were losing vital income after becoming ill and disabled while serving in the military, MacKay said the government needed legal clarification on the benefits.
"We now have that clarity and it has received considerable legal and judicial oversight," he said.
"As a result of that court action, we are now moving forward out of fairness and respect for those veterans to ensure those benefits are fully paid." ...
The opposition praised the decision, but said it shouldn't have taken a prolonged legal fight, parliamentary motions and multiple ombudsmen's reports condemning the clawback to make it.
"I am very pleased for Dennis Manuge and for his tireless efforts to obtain justice for himself and for thousands of veterans in Canada," said Liberal veterans affairs critic Sean Casey.
"It is sad that the government had to be shamed into doing the right thing, but regardless of their motives, the decision to respect the Federal Court is a welcome development." ...
Posted at: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 - 10:48 PM -- Posted by: Jim Scott -- Permalink: (#) Living
Drooling mouths, glistening eyes: "A Bite of China", a documentary on Chinese food
Jim comment: I'm a self-confessed foodie, everything from ballpark hot dogs, the offerings of street food carts, freshly harvested seafood and wild game to well-prepared offal, hand-crafted breads, charcuterie and beyond, even some haute cuisine. To my taste the two finest national cuisines in the world are those of China and Italy with all their regional variations and delights. I found this item on the culture of Chinese food today and want to share it.
Taking a bite of China
Global Times China June 6, 2012
Visit this item for its embedded English-language links, photo gallery and 10 embedded Chinese-language video segements of the program, each approximately 50 minutes. You don't need to understand the language to appreciate the program segments, though, of course, understanding the language would open up new dimensions of understanding.
... The program began shooting in March, 2011, and the production team went to various places in China to present audiences with the stories behind food and the culture it contains.
"The content of the program can be divided into two parts. First, it's about taste on the tongue. Second, it's about the changes in China. These two parts are closely connected. We expect that audiences will learn about the love that Chinese people have for food and about the fast development of the Chinese social economy," states Chen Xiaoqing, general director of the documentary. ...
Drooling mouths, wet eyes
Global Times China May 22, 2012
good friday f/a 18 f 18 crash virginia tenebrae the lake house petrino arkansas roy williams
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.