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

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

If Iran Mines the Strait of Hormuz

"In a sea drill the US Navy only found half of the mines planted in a Strait of Hormuz simulation drill. I don't know if you buy the 'we only found the important ones' argument or not but I think this exercise shows how difficult/how long it would take to reopen the strait if the Iranians mined the passage. If Iran ever does mine the strait it could take weeks to clear it. In the mean time the price of oil would explode to the upside. Perhaps this simulation will make our leaders and policy makers beat the war drum a bit softer?" Continue reading

Continue ReadingIf Iran Mines the Strait of Hormuz

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

Continue ReadingUS, Israel to hold major missile defense exercise

Debate Highlight: Showdown Over Benghazi

"In Libya, these days, a 'protest' is more than likely to be an armed assault rather than a peaceful demonstration with placards and speeches. That the makers and promoters of 'Innocence' were well aware of this possibility is my own theory, and as we learn more about the origins of this provocation I believe this will be confirmed. This was no random YouTube stunt but a well-organized operation: so far we know almost nothing about it, except that the film’s alleged creator has at least a dozen aliases and is now safely behind bars, where no journalists can ask him any questions." Continue reading

Continue ReadingDebate Highlight: Showdown Over Benghazi

U.N. seeks detailed Mali military intervention plan

"The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution that gives regional leaders 45 days to provide specific plans for an international military intervention to oust rebels in northern Mali. The unanimous resolution marks a key step and speeds up preparations for a possible intervention to retake the region from al Qaeda-linked rebels. Mali plunged into chaos in March after a military ruler overthrew the president, shaking one of West Africa's most stable democracies." Continue reading

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Michael Scheuer: Pity poor America: Obama, Romney, and Foreign Policy

"When you clear your way through all the spurious hot air about 'American exceptionalism' and 'a world eager for U.S. leadership,' you will hear the ardent desire of two men, two parties, and almost all of the media to maintain and even increase the cultural and military interventionism in the Muslim world that has killed so many Americans at home and abroad in the past sixteen years; which has brought the United States numerous, shameful military defeats; and which has created nothing but the prospect of an ever larger and more costly war with much of Islam in the years ahead." Continue reading

Continue ReadingMichael Scheuer: Pity poor America: Obama, Romney, and Foreign Policy

U.S. ‘influenced British government’s decision to introduce secret courts’

"The government argues that CMPs are needed to prevent courtroom disclosure of sensitive evidence from causing damage to the so-called 'control principle' governing intelligence shared between states. Secret evidence, which is already used in terrorism-related immigration tribunals, allows government lawyers to rely on evidence that cannot be seen by victims or claimants, or their lawyers. The evidence can be seen by security-vetted barristers known as special advocates, but they cannot discuss what they have seen. The system is widely regarded as inherently unfair and would inevitably lead to legal challenges." Continue reading

Continue ReadingU.S. ‘influenced British government’s decision to introduce secret courts’

West-Backed Christian Holocaust in Syria

"After the US invasion of Iraq, some 300,000 Christians fled that 'liberated' country for Syria — one of the few places in the Middle East where Christians could feel safe and go about their lives unmolested. US/Saudi/Qatari/Israeli-supported 'freedom fighters' — who as German intelligence finds are as much as 95 percent non-Syrian — are putting an end to that, threatening to completely eradicate a Christian population that goes back to the time of Christ. What do American Christians do? Cheer on the rebels as they kill Christians left and right in Syria because their government tells them they are 'freedom fighters.'" Continue reading

Continue ReadingWest-Backed Christian Holocaust in Syria