The Sad History of U.S. Peace Negotiations

"Negotiating for peace to prevent war is not the forte of U.S. governments. The Iranian story is yet to be written, but the press is now reporting that the U.S. and Iran have agreed for the first time to one-on-one negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. Republican Senator Lindsay Graham wants none of it, stating that 'The time for talking is over.' After all, just take a look at all the U.S. military bases surrounding Iran. Sadly, with the above graphic, combined with the U.S.'s history of not negotiating peace, it's not looking so good for those of us who don't want more foreign wars." Continue reading

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CIA demands more drones

"CIA Director David Petraeus is urging the White House to expand the agency's drone fleet, insisting it will allow the agency to carry on with its missions in Pakistan, Yemen and North Africa. The Pentagon is also planning to increase its inventory by 35% in the future. So in total the US has 791 operational drone right now and is planning to buy another 732. Are those military machines really necessary? Lieutenant Col. Anthony Schaffer of Advanced Defense Studies joins RT's Meghan Lopez." Continue reading

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CIA chiefs face arrest over horrific evidence of bloody ‘video-game’ sorties by drone pilots

"The Mail on Sunday today reveals shocking new evidence of the full horrific impact of US drone attacks in Pakistan. A damning dossier assembled from exhaustive research into the strikes’ targets sets out in heartbreaking detail the deaths of teachers, students and Pakistani policemen. It also describes how bereaved relatives are forced to gather their loved ones’ dismembered body parts in the aftermath of strikes. It is set to trigger a formal murder investigation by police into the roles of two US officials said to have ordered the strikes. They are Jonathan Banks, former head of the CIA’s Islamabad station, and John A. Rizzo, the CIA’s former chief lawyer." Continue reading

Continue ReadingCIA chiefs face arrest over horrific evidence of bloody ‘video-game’ sorties by drone pilots

Lew Rockwell explains how the Federal Reserve Enables War, Empire, and Destroys the Middle Class

"The accused Federal Reserve bomb plotter's home country wants details on his case. While this may make headlines, we ask Lew Rockwell of the Ludwig Von Mises Institute about one aspect of the Federal Reserve that has not made front page news: how the Fed, with its printing press, may be making war easier. After all, if the people of the United States were asked to write a check every year to the IRS in order to fund the exploding deficits and rising interest payments on the national debt, would they continue to support all these wars? Randolph Bourne may have famously quipped that 'war is the health of the state,' but it isn't the health of the economy, this is for certain." Continue reading

Continue ReadingLew Rockwell explains how the Federal Reserve Enables War, Empire, and Destroys the Middle Class

How Many Muslims in the World? How Many Muslim Terrorists?

"Muslim attacks worldwide and against all targets, failed and successful, add up to 18,000 since 2001. This number is bound to be controversial and subject to error. If this involved 18,000 Muslims, that's a little over one-thousandth of one percent of Muslims who engaged in a terrorist or violent attempted attack or attack anywhere in the world. How many Muslims have American forces killed since 2001? I've found a low-end estimate for 1990 to 2009, and it's 288,000. How many of these were Muslim terrorists? I can't find a tally so far. The number is very, very small relative to 288,000. The tally for drone strikes is 2-3,000 with a high proportion being innocent people." Continue reading

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US, Israel to hold major missile defense exercise

"More than 3,500 US personnel will take part in the drill, about 1,000 of them in Israel, putting a total price tag on the exercise at $60 million. The weapons will include US Patriot missile batteries and an AEGIS ballistic missile defense ship, along with the multi-tiered missile defense system that Israel has been developing. All but one of the launches will be simulated. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing the United States to set Iran an ultimatum or risk seeing Israel launch unilateral strikes." Continue reading

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The Politics of Fear in America: A Nation at War with Itself

"Turn on the TV or flip open the newspaper on any given day, and you will find yourself accosted by reports of government corruption, corporate malfeasance, militarized police and marauding SWAT teams. Yet even more dangerous than these violations of our basic rights is the language they are couched in—the language of fear. And, as John Whitehead says in this week's vodcast, the only thing which will improve our present condition is the taming of our fear." Continue reading

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U.S. military judge: ‘Torture’ is not ‘relevant’ in Guantanamo cases

"Five alleged al-Qaeda conspirators accused of aiding the 9/11 hijackers all say they were tortured for years while in CIA custody, but sitting in a military courtroom on Monday, they all heard a judge insist that 'torture' is not 'relevant' to their cases. Critics of the Bush administration’s torture program have long argued that it could taint prosecutions with evidence obtained under duress, which is exactly what defense attorneys have argued on behalf of defendants Walid bin Attash, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, and alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed." Continue reading

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Israel facing ‘increasing number of cyber attacks’

[In a total coincidence...] "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel was facing an increasing number of cyberattacks, just days after Washington issued a veiled warning to Iran over digital attacks on its interests. 'Every day there are many attempts to infiltrate Israel’s computer systems. That’s why I established the National Cyber Directorate last year, which serves as an electronic ‘Iron Dome’ against computer terrorism,' he added. He did not specify which systems had come under attack, nor did he say who was behind them." Continue reading

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