"Her testimony on the attack against the U.S. facility in Benghazi has been delayed by over a month. Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went before members of Congress to answer questions. What questions did the Secretary of State answer? What was one question the Senators failed to ask? For more background on the U.S. support of Al Qaeda, click here." Continue reading →
"President Mohamed Morsi has announced a state of emergency in three cities near Egypt’s Suez Canal, following four days of civil unrest that have left at least 40 dead and over 500 injured. Since Thursday, hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in 12 of the country’s 21 provinces, to protest against the Islamist president, the Muslim Brotherhood, and police brutality – exactly two years after the start of the Egyptian revolution. 'We think the president is totally responsible for the conflict,' said Khaled Daoud, a spokesman for the National Salvation Front, a disparate collection of liberal and leftist parties opposed to Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood." Continue reading →
"Business is good; French president Francois Hollande spent this past Tuesday in Abu Dhabi clinching the sale of up to 60 Rafales to that Gulf paragon of democracy, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The formerly wimpy Hollande - now enjoying his 'resolute', 'determined', tough guy image reconversion - has cleverly sold all this as incinerating Islamists in the savannah before they take a one-way Bamako-Paris flight to bomb the Eiffel Tower. According to the UN Office of Drugs Control, 60% of Europe's cocaine transits Mali." Continue reading →
"Leaders in Pakistan are outraged at reported U.S. plans to continue controversial drone strikes against suspected al-Qaida-linked sanctuaries on Pakistani soil. They are calling it 'close to a perpetual war,' and say it is exactly opposite to what President Barack Obama stated in his inaugural speech on Monday. U.S. drone strikes on targets in Pakistani regions along the border with Afghanistan remain highly controversial and are deeply unpopular in Pakistan. Pakistan publicly condemns the drone campaign and wants the U.S. to end it, saying that it not only violates the country's sovereignty, but that collateral damage caused by the strikes is fueling militancy in the region." Continue reading →
"In 2007, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled, 'To Check Syria, U.S. Explores Bond With Muslim Brothers.' And even then, it was noted that the Brotherhood held close links with groups the US recognizes and lists as terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Al Qaeda. The report gives a disturbing foreshadowing of US support that would eventually see the Muslim Brotherhood rise as both a political and terroristic power across the Arab World, after decades of hard-fought attempts to crush the sectarian extremist organization. In fact, the 2007 article specifically noted that the US partnership could 'destabilize governments in Jordan and Egypt'." Continue reading →
"The widely-acclaimed PBS program, NOVA, premiered a documentary on unmanned aerial vehicles or drones. The documentary, 'Rise of the Drones,' was produced to explore how the technology is revolutionizing warfare and creating the next generation of cutting-edge surveillance. It was created to provide a glimpse at how the technology has advanced and how innovations might progress in the future. Before the documentary began, PBS noted the program had received funding from the David H. Koch Foundation for Science. It also received 'additional funding' from Lockheed Martin." Continue reading →
"Mahdi Hashi, who vanished last summer in Somalia, has described for the first time his 'horrific' ordeal at the hands of the secret police in the neighbouring state of Djibouti, who he claims worked closely with US interrogators. The 23-year-old, who lived in London, alleges that he was stripped and repeatedly slapped before being threatened with electrocution and sexual abuse by officers who were attached to Djibouti's intelligence service. Speaking from a top security prison in New York, where his family tracked him down just before Christmas, Mr Hashi claims he was so frightened by the threats of torture that he signed the confession demanded by his American interrogators." Continue reading →
"The nomination of President Barack Obama’s top counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan to head the CIA has sparked outrage and concern about America’s growing drones programme and its use for targeted killings of suspected Islamic militants. Brennan has been a key architect of drones policy under Obama and many experts believe that the use of the unmanned robot planes in countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia is likely to increase if he becomes America’s top spy." Continue reading →
"Yemen saw a drastic increase in the clandestine attacks, with strikes against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants rising from 18 in 2011 to 53 in 2012. This 'drone war' is officially classified, and the US does not provide any information on the strikes. President Barack Obama only incidentally recognized their existence at the end of January in an online exchange. In Yemen, between 397 and 539 militants were killed by drone strikes, according to the New America Foundation, which did not specify the number of civilian victims. The drones used there are operated both by the CIA and by the Joint Special Operations Command." Continue reading →
The 'war on drugs' is a narcotics price support program and a public works project for the coercive sector (especially the prison-industrial complex). It also provides an apparently bottomless well of revenue to fund the projects in subversion and state terrorism carried out by the CIA and its affiliates. Investigators like John McLaughlin are rewarded for gathering up huge volumes of tiny fish – and severely punished when they disturb any of the politically protected barracudas." Continue reading →