Yearly Archives: 2013

Americans Aren’t Buying the Media’s Push For A War In Syria

"While the mainstream media has enjoyed a monopoly on this thought-enforcement for decades, thanks to decentralized power of the internet there are signs that Americans are starting to wake up. Administration claims, whether they be about the next country that needs to be bombed or the status of the economy, are now more easily scrutinized than ever before. Rather than an acceptable, bipartisan mainstream and a kooky fringe, slowly but surely the real ideological battle lines are being drawn: individualism vs. authoritarianism. Those of us who believe in peace and the Bill of Rights on one side, and those who believe in unlimited state power on the other." Continue reading →

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7 Reasons Why the Public Is Right to Mistrust Obama on Syria

"1. What Iraq taught Americans -- what Vietnam taught before that -- is that Washington foreign-policy planners cannot accurately say beforehand just how long a war will last, how much it will cost, or how many Americans it might ultimately kill, even though many of them earnestly believe that their prognostication is accurate. They're asking us to believe their assurances about how limited the conflict will be, even though many of them got Iraq wrong on that same metric. They talk about intervention in Syria as if they know just what will happen. That's part of why they can't be trusted: their delusions of control." Continue reading →

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College Students Chase, Heckle David Petraeus on First Day of Class

"Petraeus was on the way to teaching his first class at CUNY’s honors college, entitled 'Are We on the Threshold of the North American Decade?' He took on the teaching gig as part of rehabilitating his image following an extramarital affair scandal that led to his resignation from the CIA. The students can be heard yelling 'War criminal!' at the retired military officer who played a key role in the 'counterinsurgency' strategy of the Iraq War. 'Every class, David!' the students shout, suggesting they plan to protest him on a weekly basis, before every lecture. 'Petraeus out of CUNY' and 'Fascist' were some of the other chants." Continue reading →

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Meanwhile, This Is What Putin Is Doing…

"It will come as no surprise that amid the Mother Theresa acts, The Telegraph reports that Putin is readying delivery of more S-300 air-defense missile systems to Iran and will continue to discuss 'working together in the nuclear energy sphere.' Combine that with experts' views that Russia's plan to dismantle Syria's stockpiles of mustard gas, sarin, VX nerve agents is a long shot; initially 'sounding attractive, but very quickly, operational problems could derail obtaining international control, much less actually destroying the arsenal.' It would appear, despite all the chatter, that Putin is increasing his power-base in the region." Continue reading →

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Recruited by Al-Qaeda: Foreign fighters in a Damascus jail tell their stories

"Raouchan Gazakov brought his family to Syria, taught his 5-year-old son to make bombs and bade farewell to his relative, a suicide bomber. RT’s Maria Finoshina talked to him in a Damascus prison and asked him why he came to fight for Al-Qaeda. In the Damascus prison, there are many stories of men recruited from faraway lands to come fight for jihad in Syria. In January, a leaked memo provided an inside look at how Saudi officials commuted the sentences of 1,200 death row inmates on the condition they join the rebels and fight against Assad in Syria, the Assyrian International News Agency reported." Continue reading →

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CIA Begins Weapons Delivery To Syrian Rebels

"The CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria, ending months of delay in lethal aid that had been promised by the Obama administration, according to U.S. officials and Syrian figures. The shipments began streaming into the country over the past two weeks, along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles and other gear — a flow of material that marks a major escalation of the U.S. role in Syria’s civil war. The arms shipments, which are limited to light weapons and other munitions that can be tracked, began arriving in Syria at a moment of heightened tensions over threats by President Obama to order missile strikes to punish the regime of Bashar al-Assad." Continue reading →

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9/11 Commission leaders push for changes in US terrorism fight

"Today, Al Qaeda and its affiliates maintain a presence in 'some 16 different theaters of operation – compared with half as many as recently as five years ago,' according to the report. In Syria in particular, the civil war may be providing Al Qaeda 'with a chance to regroup, train, and plan operations, much as the US invasion of Iraq revitalized the network and gave it new relevance,' notes the report. While these Al Qaeda groups have been busy expanding in other parts of the globe, within the confines of the United States, the threat of attacks 'has shifted away from plots directly connected to foreign groups,' in the report’s estimation, 'to plots by individuals who are merely inspired by them.'" Continue reading →

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Napolitano: Obama’s remedy for embarrassment nothing but tough talk

"Mr. Obama is generally firm in his belief that he needs to vindicate the threat he made last summer when he was trying to outdo Mitt Romney on sounding tough. It was then that Mr. Obama threatened to intervene in the Syrian civil war if chemical weapons were used by the government. Nevertheless, hating the international embarrassment visited upon him when suddenly Mr. Putin seems more reasonable than he does, Mr. Obama conceded to my Fox News colleague Chris Wallace that the Kerry-inspired and Putin-pushed idea seemed worth considering. Then the Syrian government agreed." Continue reading →

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Why the US is Really Chasing War With Syria

"Global markets rallied overnight on hopes that a conflict may be avoided if Syria gives up its chemical weapons. If that’s the case, it’s a rally that will fade later in the week. That’s because the ongoing Syrian conflict has nothing to do with chemical weapons. It’s all about regime change, which is all about natural gas and pipelines. But this is not just ‘another’ Middle Eastern conflict. It’s much deeper, subtler, and potentially far more dangerous than preceding conflicts. As we’ll attempt to explain, the situation in Syria is a direct result of the relative decline of US imperial power." Continue reading →

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The Taxman Cometh! Stopping the Internet TAX in the House

Excessive taxation…will carry reason and reflection to every man’s door, and particularly in the hour of election.” Thomas Jefferson ~ Letter to John Taylor — 1798   If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street, If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat. If you get too cold I’ll tax the heat, If …

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