"Ben Swann Full Disclosure talks with Emilio Ibrahim, a Syrian man living in Damascus about the U.S. and Saudi funding of Al Qaeda fighters who are leading the so called Syrian revolution." Continue reading →
"The US Central Intelligence Agency has been feeding information to select rebel fighters in Syria to try to make them more effective against government troops, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. Citing unnamed current and former US officials, the newspaper said the new CIA effort reflected a change in the administration’s approach that aims to strengthen secular rebel fighters. The CIA has sent officers to Turkey to help vet rebels who receive arms shipments from Gulf allies, the report said. But administration officials cited concerns about some weapons going to Islamists, the paper noted." Continue reading →
"All Cyprus is, it’s (similar to) a division of the Grand Cayman Island, it’s just a different group of people washing and money laundering. But this is about much more than Cyprus, bank runs, and stealing money from the depositors. What we are looking at, Eric, on another level is an alliance, an alliance leading to wars. Look, they just appointed a new President in China, Xi. Where is the first place he went to visit? Moscow. Putin. Then there is Iran. So you can see the alliances already forming: It’s China, Russia, and Iran, against the United States, the Arab League, and Nato. And then you look at where the United States is now moving its military - Asia." Continue reading →
"IF you find the use of remotely piloted warrior drones troubling, imagine that the decision to kill a suspected enemy is not made by an operator in a distant control room, but by the machine itself. Imagine that an aerial robot studies the landscape below, recognizes hostile activity, calculates that there is minimal risk of collateral damage, and then, with no human in the loop, pulls the trigger. Welcome to the future of warfare. While Americans are debating the president’s power to order assassination by drone, powerful momentum — scientific, military and commercial — is propelling us toward the day when we cede the same lethal authority to software." Continue reading →
"With America's drone capabilities expanding, the United Nations has stepped in and is demanding the US stop conducting unmanned airstrikes in Pakistan. The UN is calling the drone program a violation of the country's sovereignty and the attacks are being carried out without the consent of the people of Pakistan." Continue reading →
"Leaked audio recording of Bradley Manning describing his response to the July 12, 2007 Baghdad Apache airstrike video that documented the killing of two Reuters journalists." Continue reading →
"Reading from a prepared statement, Manning said he was not pressured by WikiLeaks to release the information and that he wanted to give the documents to The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Reuters, but they did not want what he had to offer. He also said the leaked information had 'upset' or 'disturbed' him, but did not contain anything he thought would harm the United States if it became public. Regarding the Collateral Murder video, Manning said the 'most alarming part to me was the seemingly delightful blood-lust' and that those in the video 'seemed to not value human life by referring to them as ‘dead bastards.’'" Continue reading →
"The United States said it was flying training missions of nuclear-capable B-52 bombers over South Korea, in a clear signal to North Korea at a time of escalating military tensions. The flights — part of annual joint South Korea-US military exercises — should be seen as underscoring US commitment and capacity to defend Seoul against an attack from the North, Pentagon spokesman George Little said. B-52s have taken part in annual exercises before, but Little said the Pentagon wanted to underline their use this time given the current, heightened tensions, and he added that further B-52 flights would be carried out." Continue reading →
"There are few better ways of appreciating how the Republican Party has transformed in the last two years from a party of defense hawks to a party of deficit hawks than tracking how the sequester has turned from a threat to the nation’s defenses to an unparalleled opportunity to bring the government to heel. The whole panoply of vested interests surrounding defense that has ensured that federal spending on guarding our shores and keeping tyranny at bay has, since Eisenhower, become the main Keynesian engine of economic growth. Does the hushed response to this most profound assault upon defense spending mean the end of Keynesian militarism?" Continue reading →
"Ten years after the invasion that smashed Iraq’s military, the country has become a major buyer of military equipment, spending billions to rebuild its armed forces. In doing so, Iraq has become a customer of some of the same companies that supplied the weapons used to attack Baghdad’s troops in 2003. Some 54 companies from 13 countries participated in the show, advertising equipment ranging from jet aircraft, drones, missiles and shells to gas masks, uniforms and boots. With a security and defence budget of about $16.4 billion for 2013 and a commitment to rebuilding its forces, Iraq offers significant opportunities for defence and security firms." Continue reading →