Rogue State

Israel admits to 1988 Mossad assasination of ‘PLO No.2 Abu Jihad’

"Israel has for the first time admitted assassinating the PLO’s former number two, Abu Jihad, in a raid on the movement’s Tunis headquarters in 1988, a newspaper reported on Thursday. The report, published in Israel’s top-selling Yediot Aharonot, said the operation was planned by the Mossad spy agency and carried out by the Sayeret Matkal elite commando unit. Abu Jihad, whose real name was Khalil al-Wazir, was shot dead in the early hours of April 16, 1988 in a commando raid on the PLO headquarters by what was presumed to be Israeli agents." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIsrael admits to 1988 Mossad assasination of ‘PLO No.2 Abu Jihad’

House Intelligence Chair: Strike On Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Would Not Be An Act Of War

"Well, in very targeted strikes, we use very targeted strikes against al Qaeda. And so if it is a very targeted strike, many would argue that that’s short of war. And if it only seeks to go after their nuclear program, that is — we’re not talking about invasions or naval engagements or troops on the ground, none of that. And this has been used by other — President Clinton used this tactic. [..] And we do know, those — that the Iranians believe that there is a whole panoply of options — war and then these targeted strikes they don’t see as — wouldn’t see as an act of war." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHouse Intelligence Chair: Strike On Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Would Not Be An Act Of War

Glenn Greenwald: Joe Klein’s sociopathic defense of drone killings of children

"Obama has led all sorts of progressives and other Democrats to be the most vocal supporters of unrestrained aggression, secret assassinations, and 'crippling' the Iranian people with sanctions. It is completely unsurprising that the most sociopathic defense of drones comes from one of the most committed Obama supporters, and that it's now left to a former GOP Congressman to raise objections. As much as anything, that is the Obama legacy. Those who cheer for the unchecked power to assassinate in secret because it's Obama who currently wields that power will be the ones fully responsible for future abuses." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: Joe Klein’s sociopathic defense of drone killings of children

Missouri Lt. Gov. protests UN election monitors previously invited by Pres. Bush

"Missouri Lt. Governor Peter Kinder (R) on Thursday warned that 'Albanian' election monitors who will observe polling places on November 6 are part of President Barack Obama’s plan to let the United Nations take over the United States. Kinder said he was inspired by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who threatened to arrested the international election monitors if they come within 100 feet of a polling place. Following a request from eight civil rights groups, the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), a United Nations partner, had agreed to send 44 election monitors to the United States." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMissouri Lt. Gov. protests UN election monitors previously invited by Pres. Bush

UN to investigate civilian deaths from U.S. drone strikes

"The United Nations is to set up a dedicated investigations unit in Geneva to examine the legality of drone attacks in cases where civilians are killed in so-called ‘targeted’ counter-terrorism operations. The announcement was made by Ben Emmerson QC, a UN special rapporteur, in a speech to Harvard law school in which he condemned secret rendition and waterboarding as crimes under international law. His forthright comments, directed at both US presidential candidates, will be seen as an explicit challenge to the prevailing US ideology of the global war on terror." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUN to investigate civilian deaths from U.S. drone strikes

US ‘Secret’ Drone Base and Ron Paul’s Foreign Policy

"It is from this massive, 500 acre base run by the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), that virtually all the non-Afghan war drones are launched. It is the center of the US drone war against al-Qaeda (except for those al-Qaeda elements in Libya and Syria with which the US administration is allied -- think of those as Eastasia). Appropriately, the base, called Camp Lemonnier, is located on grounds used earlier by the French Foreign Legion -- the non-French arm of the French military used to keep the French colonial empire in line. In Lemonnier we see both under one roof cash to those who do what they are told and drones for those who do not." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS ‘Secret’ Drone Base and Ron Paul’s Foreign Policy

Former cricket captain turned politician Imran Khan detained and ‘interrogated over drone views’ by U.S. immigration

"Imran Khan, the former Pakistan cricket captain turned politician, was taken off an international flight from Canada to New York and questioned by US immigration officials over his views on drone strikes and jihad. Khan, who has been at the forefront of a high-profile campaign as leader of the Pakistan Movement for Justice party (PTI) to end US drone strikes in northern Pakistan, had been in Canada to give a speech and was on his way to a fundraising dinner in the US on Friday." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFormer cricket captain turned politician Imran Khan detained and ‘interrogated over drone views’ by U.S. immigration

Bruce Jessen: The Torturer in the Pulpit

"John Kiriakou's supposed offense – for which he was originally charged under the 1917 Espionage Act, which provides for the death penalty – was to speak critically of the torture program and identify one of the officials involved in it. Kiriakou, one of six officials being prosecuted by the Obama administration for 'leaking' information about the government’s crimes, accepted a plea bargain because he has five children. That fact, to use Jessen’s terminology, made him 'exploitable.' Accordingly, while the architect of the torture program, Bruce Jessen, will now hold forth from a Mormon pulpit, a whistleblower will spend at least 2 1/2 years in prison." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBruce Jessen: The Torturer in the Pulpit

President Romney Can Thank Obama for His Permanent Robotic Death List

"It’s a good thing that Mitt Romney endorsed President Obama’s counterterrorism agenda. Should he win the election in two weeks, Romney will inherit an institutionalized, bureaucratic machine for using lethal robots to target and kill suspected terrorists and their allies. Killing Osama bin Laden was a one-time event; this 'Disposition Matrix' is Barack Obama’s real national-security legacy. Despite bin Laden’s death and the supposed disruption of al-Qaida’s old leadership, the Matrix keeps adding names, as fast or faster than the drones drop bodies." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPresident Romney Can Thank Obama for His Permanent Robotic Death List