War & Peace

83-year-old nun gets 20 year sentence for ‘symbolic’ nuclear facility break-in

"An 83-year-old nun who broke into a Tennessee depleted uranium storage facility in 2012 and splashed human blood on several surfaces, exposing a massive security hole at the nation’s only facility used to store radioactive conventional munitions, was convicted Wednesday and sentenced to a term of up to 20 years in prison. She and two other peace activists, 64-year-old Michael Walli and 56-year-old Greg Boertje-Obed, were convicted of 'invasion of a nuclear facility' in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, even though investigators admitted they did not get close to any actual nuclear material." Continue reading →

Continue Reading83-year-old nun gets 20 year sentence for ‘symbolic’ nuclear facility break-in

U.S. Currently Fighting 74 Different Wars … That It Will Publicly Admit

"By mid-2010, the Obama administration had increased the presence of Special Operations forces from sixty countries to seventy-five countries. [A]mong the countries where [Joint Special Operations Command] teams had been deployed under the Obama administration were: Iran, Georgia, Ukraine, Bolivia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru, Yemen, Pakistan (including in Baluchistan) and the Philippines. These teams also at times deployed in Turkey, Belgium, France and Spain. JSOC was also supporting US Drug Enforcement Agency operations in Colombia and Mexico." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Currently Fighting 74 Different Wars … That It Will Publicly Admit

How the Iraq War Became a War on Christians

"The U.S. fails to recognize that the Islamist-Wahabbist commitment to eradicating Christian minorities today will result in the extinction of diverse modes of Islam tomorrow, a fact that is not lost on moderate Muslims. The objective of the Iraq War—to democratize the Middle East—may yet be realized. But democracy in the Middle East is proving less tolerant than the regimes it has succeeded. These democracies will not march ineluctably toward liberty and pluralism, as some naïve optimists continue to forecast despite the evidence, but will end in the ordered barbarism of Saudi Arabia, where punishments include beheading and crucifixion, according to Amnesty International." Continue reading →

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Turns Out British Spies Were Giving Bags of Cash to Karzai, Too

"A week after we learned that the CIA delivered bags full of cash to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in exchange for his cooperation, the United Kingdom's MI6 admitted to doing the same thing this weekend. While the British spies say they forked over just a fraction of what their American counterparts did, the new information proves that this quasi-bribery scheme was hardly an isolated incident. In fact, it sounds like it was a big part of the allies' operation in Afghanistan. The leader called the CIA and MI6 contributions an 'easy source of petty cash' for dealing with the Taliban." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTurns Out British Spies Were Giving Bags of Cash to Karzai, Too

UN Commission Investigator: It Was The Syrian Rebels Who Used Sarin

"It made all the sense in the world for the insurgents to release some sarin here and there, make some videos of the victims, and email the links to some very willing Israeli generals and McCainian rabid warhawks in the US and their absurd poodles in the UK and France. The question is, whence came the chemical weapons? Perhaps the Syrian government was not lying when it asserted at the end of last month that the chemical weapons used by the Syrian rebels originated in Turkey. The Syrian official's claim was reported in the Western press as an example of mendacity, laughed at by the US administration. But it seems he may well have been telling the truth." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUN Commission Investigator: It Was The Syrian Rebels Who Used Sarin

Police in Springfield, Mass. adopt Iraq-style ‘counterinsurgency’ tactics

"Police in Springfield, Massachusetts have adopted Iraq-style 'counterinsurgency' tactics and are applying them to gang busting with amazing results. U.S. counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq focused on keeping militants at bay while creating stable space for a community to come together and begin resolving issues that create violence. To officer Mike Katone, freshly home from a war zone and working for the Springfield police force, that strategy made more and more sense the longer he looked at his city’s gang problems." Continue reading →

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Israeli Bombs Over Syria, Part Two

"The passive-aggressive US State Department, which is curiously -- or not -- silent every time its beloved insurgents commit an atrocity of a Boston-on-steroids scale against Christians and others who do not support al-Qaeda in Syria, has nevertheless suddenly found its voice to condemn Syrian government for a 'massacre' in Baida, where seven bodies have been found killed in possible retaliation for the killing of seven members of the Syrian Army. The US is suddenly 'appalled by horrific reports' with no evidence, while silent on the truly horrific atrocities committed by its allies, the insurgents." Continue reading →

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Authorization for Use of Military Force: a blank check for war without end

"The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), passed after the attacks of 11 September 2001, provides the legal cornerstone for the so-called US 'war on terror'. It allows the US government to wage war at anytime, any place and on anyone deemed a threat to national security. The AUMF opened the doors to the US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya; attacks on Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Mali; the new drone bases in Niger and Djibouti; and the killing of American citizens, notably Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old noncombatant son. It is what now emboldens the hawks on the warpath to Syria, Iran and North Korea." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAuthorization for Use of Military Force: a blank check for war without end

Chinese Soldiers March Into Indian Territory, Pitch Tents, Declare Land For China

"An equally plausible explanation is that ambiguity and an unwillingness to retreat was the cause of all the fuss. Troops from both the Chinese and Indian militaries cross the unmarked border on a regular basis, sometimes unaware of having done so. 'This sort of situation happens easily because the two sides have different understandings of the Line of Actual Control,' said Zhang Li, a professor at Sichuan University. Indian politicians disagree, saying that Chinese troops deliberately crossed into Indian territory and have since refused to leave. The government has promised to defend Indian interests, while opposition parties accuse it of cowardice and inaction." Continue reading →

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How humanitarians trumped neo-cons in Libya

"With Muammar Gaddafi dead, the hunt is on for a new hate figure on whom to spew venom; far more satisfying than actually evaluating our own role in the creation of human misery. For the governments that lead us into war, of course, it makes perfect sense that we do not stop to look back at the last invasion before impatiently demanding the next one - if we realized, for example, that the 1999 bombing of Serbia - the textbook 'humanitarian intervention'- actually facilitated the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo it was supposedly designed to prevent, we might not be so ready to demand the same treatment for every other state that falls short of our illusory ideals." Continue reading →

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