Mainstream News

CIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran

"The CIA documents, which sat almost entirely unnoticed in a trove of declassified material at the National Archives in College Park, Md., combined with exclusive interviews with former intelligence officials, reveal new details about the depth of the United States' knowledge of how and when Iraq employed the deadly agents. They show that senior U.S. officials were being regularly informed about the scale of the nerve gas attacks. They are tantamount to an official American admission of complicity in some of the most gruesome chemical weapons attacks ever launched." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran

3,000 Saudis urge Shura council to debate women’s driving

"Saudi Arabia imposes several restrictions on women, including a ban on driving, unique of its kind worldwide. Women in Saudi Arabia also have to cover from head to toe when in public. A number of women have been arrested in the past for defying the ban, including one sentenced to 10 lashes in 2011 but was pardoned by King Abdullah. A group of defiant Saudi women got behind the wheels of their cars on June 17, in 2011, in response to calls for nationwide action to break the ban on driving. The call which spread through Facebook and Twitter was the largest mass action since November 1990, when 47 Saudi women were arrested and severely punished after demonstrating in cars." Continue reading →

Continue Reading3,000 Saudis urge Shura council to debate women’s driving

Saudi Arabia opens luxury ‘religious extremist’ rehab center for Al-Qaeda militants

"Saudi Arabia is hoping to wean jailed Al-Qaeda militants off religious extremism with counselling, spa treatments and plenty of exercise at a luxury rehabilitation centre in Riyadh. In between sessions with counsellors and talks on religion, prisoners will be able to relax in the centre’s facilities which include an Olympic-size indoor swimming pool, a sauna, a gym and a television hall. Another centre has already opened in the western port city of Jeddah, and three more are planned for the north, east and south of the desert kingdom. The new facility in Riyadh, however, is the first to offer inmates a taste of luxury as an incentive to moderate their beliefs." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSaudi Arabia opens luxury ‘religious extremist’ rehab center for Al-Qaeda militants

In Swat Valley, U.S. drone strikes radicalizing a new generation

"The boys here, aged 8 to 18, were all militants at some point. Some are killers, some helped build and plant improvised explosive devices, and others were destined to be suicide bombers until they were captured or turned over to the Pakistani army. All of them are at the school to be de-radicalized. Ninety-nine percent of the boys, I am told, have never heard of Osama bin Laden, despite the fact he was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in the next valley over from here. What has radicalized these boys instead, the school's director says, is what turns teenagers the world over to crime: poverty, poor education, limited prospects and often lack of parental control." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIn Swat Valley, U.S. drone strikes radicalizing a new generation

Afghanistan’s opium cultivation to surge in 2013: UN

"Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is expected to increase for a third straight year, expanding even to poppy-free areas this year, a United Nations report warned. 'The assessment suggests that poppy cultivation is not only expected to expand in areas where it already existed in 2012… but also in new areas or in areas where poppy cultivation was stopped,' the survey said. Cultivation is mostly increasing in southern provinces where the Taliban are more active and thousands of international troops are set to withdraw this year. Poppy farmers are taxed by Taliban militants who use the cash to help fund their insurgency against the government and NATO forces." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAfghanistan’s opium cultivation to surge in 2013: UN

Video of Syrian rebel fighter cutting out heart of soldier and eating it condemned

[May 2013] "Human Rights Watch and the Syrian opposition National Coalition have condemned a gruesome video apparently showing a Syrian rebel fighter cutting out the heart of a regime soldier and eating it. 'International news agencies and social media websites have been circulating a video clip in which a person claiming to be a member of the rebels in Homs performs a horrific and inhumane act,' the National Coalition said. Human Rights Watch said the man depicted in the video appeared to be from a rebel brigade in central Homs province that fired indiscriminately at Lebanese villages earlier this year." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingVideo of Syrian rebel fighter cutting out heart of soldier and eating it condemned

Syrian rebels’ pledge of allegiance to al Qaeda complicates Western intervention strategies

[April 2013] "The West is floundering over how to respond to Syria’s worsening civil war, especially after a leading Islamist rebel group pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda, opposition officials and experts say. The move by the Al-Nusra Front this week has complicated efforts by US and European officials to come up with unified strategy to support the rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. After pushing for weeks to lift a European embargo so arms could be supplied to the rebels, France and Britain have recently backed away from the initiative amid fears weapons could fall into the wrong hands." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSyrian rebels’ pledge of allegiance to al Qaeda complicates Western intervention strategies

CFR Head Richard Haass: U.S. is going to take military action against Syria

"Richard Haass, the president on the Council on Foreign Relations, said Monday he was almost certain the United States was going to attack Syria. 'Secretary Kerry went far out on a limb, both in the content and, as you say, the tone,' he told CNN. 'So, sure, I would frankly be surprised and then some if the United States now did not probably together with a few other countries take some military action.' 'You’re probably looking at sea launch cruise missile, probably some airborne cruise missiles, but something along those lines I think would be the most natural sort of response for the United States to launch at this point,' Haass said." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCFR Head Richard Haass: U.S. is going to take military action against Syria

John Kerry: Syria guilty of ‘a moral obscenity’

"Speaking amid reports that Washington and its allies are preparing to launch a punitive cruise missile strike on Syrian targets, US Secretary of State John Kerry accused Bashar al-Assad’s regime of engaging in a cover-up. Kerry said Washington would provide more evidence of who was behind the attack, and that US President Barack Obama was determined that the guilty would face consequences. With China and Moscow expected to boycott any resolution backing a military strike, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the West could act even without full UN Security Council backing." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJohn Kerry: Syria guilty of ‘a moral obscenity’

German chancellor Angela Merkel to make campaign stop in Dachau

"Angela Merkel will become the first German chancellor to visit the former Nazi concentration camp Dachau as she steps up warnings about the far-right threat while campaigning for a third term. In her weekly podcast, Merkel on Saturday warned ahead of the visit that Europeans must remain vigilant against Holocaust deniers and right-wing extremists. Merkel will hold a campaign rally the same evening in the town of Dachau ahead of a Bavarian state poll and the German general election next month. [A recent Neo-Nazi murder trial] exposed serious failings of the German security services, which had focused their investigation almost entirely on Germany’s large Turkish community." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGerman chancellor Angela Merkel to make campaign stop in Dachau