Saturday, August 30, 2008

We Lie and Bluster About Our Nukes - And Then Wag Our Fingers At Iran

By George Monbiot

By failing to disarm and breaking the rules when it suits, nuclear states are driving proliferation....

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Monday, August 18, 2008

Was 9/11 an Inside Job?

By Mark H. Gaffney

Mark can be reached for comment at markhgaffney@earthlink.net

This excellent article is an excerpt from Mark H. Gaffney's forthcoming book,
THE 911 MYSTERY PLANE AND THE VANISHING OF AMERICA,
to be released in September 2008.

Regrettably, there is considerable evidence that elements of the Bush administration were complicit in the 9/11 attack, and may even have helped stage it. Let us now examine some of what I regard as the most compelling evidence.....

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Gorbatchev describes Georgia Attack:

Media "Lies from Begining to End"

Video

Click Tom View


Putin's Winning Hand

By Mike Whitney

There are no military installations in the city of Tskhinvali. In fact, there are no military targets at all. It is an industrial center consisting of lumber mills, manufacturing plants and residential areas. It is also the home to 30,000 South Ossetians.

When Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili ordered the city to be bombed by warplanes and shelled by heavy artillery last Thursday, he knew that he would be killing hundreds of civilians in their homes and neighborhoods. But he ordered the bombing anyway. .....

By day's end, over 2,000 people were killed in an operation that was clearly engineered with the assistance of the Bush White House.

Bush regards Saakashvilli as his main client in the region; they are friends. He is America's cat's paw in the Caucasus. Saakashvilli's assignment is to try to get Putin to overreact militarily and demonstrate to European allies that Russia still poses a threat to their national security.

Fortunately, many Europeans see through the ruse and know that the trouble originates in Washington. ........

The coverage of the western media has been abysmal.

Nearly every article and TV news segment begins with accusations of Russian aggression concealing the fact that the Georgian Army bombarded and invaded the capital of South Ossetia one full day before the first Russian tank crossed the border. By the time the Russians arrived, the city was already in a shambles and thousands were dead......

In a 2006 referendum, 99% of South Ossetians said they supported independence from Georgia. The voter turnout was 95% and the balloting was monitored by 34 international observers from the west. No one has challenged the results.

The province has been under the protection of Russian and Georgian peacekeepers since 1992 and has been a de facto independent state ever since. If Putin applied the same standard as Bush did in Kosovo, he would unilaterally declare South Ossetia independent from Georgia and then thumb his nose at the UN. (Sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander)

But Putin and newly-elected Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have taken a conciliatory attitude towards the international community and tried to resolve the issue through diplomatic channels. So far, they have conducted themselves with restraint and avoided any confrontation.

Still, Russia's operation in South Ossetia has ignited a firestorm in the US political establishment and Democrats and Republicans alike are demanding that Russia be "taught a lesson". ....

Saakashvili's hyperbolic rhetoric was followed by a surprise announcement from Poland that they had approved Bush's plans for deploying the Missile Defense Shield in Eastern Europe.......

The new "shield" will be integrated into the larger US nuclear weapons system placing the world's most lethal weapons just a few hundred miles from Russia's capital.

It is a clear threat to Russia's national security and it must be opposed at all cost.......

President Medvedev made this statement after hearing of Poland's decision:

"This decision clearly demonstrates everything we have said recently. The deployment of new anti-missile forces in Europe is aimed at the Russian Federation."......

The Bush administration has been planning for a confrontation with Russia for more than a year.....

So, it appears the Bush administration, working in conjunction with the Pentagon, did have contingency plans for dealing with a flare-up with Georgia.

The real question is whether or not they planned to initiate those hostilities to advance their own regional agenda? .......

Now that Georgia's American-trained army has been humiliated in front of the world, Bush is trying desperately to save face by demanding that Russia allow the US Air force to deliver humanitarian aid via C-17 military aircraft to the tens of thousands of Georgians who were displaced in the fighting.

It is worth noting that, as yet, Bush has never delivered as much as a bag of rice to the 2 million Iraqi refugees living in Jordan and Syria due to his war in Iraq.

Bush's magnanimity is not only suspect, it also creates real problems for Putin who will have to decide whether the offer is sincere or just a ploy to open up the ports and airfields so that more weaponry and ordnance can be delivered......

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Friday, August 08, 2008

White House 'buried British intelligence on Iraq WMDs'

MI6 told Tony Blair before the invasion of Iraq
that a high-placed Iraqi source said that
Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction.
The intelligence was passed to the US
but was buried by the White House,
according to a new book.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4466512.ece
The Lies Of Hiroshima Are The Lies Of Today

By John Pilger

On the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, John Pilger describes the 'progression of lies' from the dust of that detonated city, to the wars of today - and the threatened attack on Iran. ....


The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a criminal act on an epic scale. ......

The most enduring lie is that the atomic bomb was dropped to end the war in the Pacific and save lives. .....

Since 1945, the United States is believed to have been on the brink of using nuclear weapons at least three times. In waging their bogus "war on terror", the present governments in Washington and London have declared they are prepared to make "pre-emptive" nuclear strikes against non-nuclear states.

With each stroke toward the midnight of a nuclear Armageddon, the lies of justification grow more outrageous. Iran is the current "threat". But Iran has no nuclear weapons and the disinformation that it is planning a nuclear arsenal comes largely from a discredited CIA-sponsored Iranian opposition group, the MEK - just as the lies about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction originated with the Iraqi National Congress, set up by Washington.

The role of western journalism in erecting this straw man is critical. That America's Defence Intelligence Estimate says "with high confidence" that Iran gave up its nuclear weapons programme in 2003 has been consigned to the memory hole. That Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad never threatened to "wipe Israel off the map" is of no interest. But such has been the mantra of this media "fact" that in his recent, obsequious performance before the Israeli parliament, Gordon Brown alluded to it as he threatened Iran, yet again.

This progression of lies has brought us to one of the most dangerous nuclear crises since 1945, because the real threat remains almost unmentionable in western establishment circles and therefore in the media. There is only one rampant nuclear power in the Middle East and that is Israel.

The heroic Mordechai Vanunu tried to warn the world in 1986 when he smuggled out evidence that Israel was building as many as 200 nuclear warheads. In defiance of UN resolutions, Israel is today clearly itching to attack Iran, fearful that a new American administration might, just might, conduct genuine negotiations with a nation the west has defiled since Britain and America overthrew Iranian democracy in 1953. .....

Catching war criminals is fashionable again. Radovan Karadzic stands in the dock, but Sharon and Olmert, Bush and Blair do not. Why not? The memory of Hiroshima requires an answer.

Read more about the real reasons why the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan!:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20444.htm



The Atomic Bombing of Japan
The claims that Truman and advisers used the bombs on military bases, and
after careful consideration of alternatives,
have both been proven false.

Where Are the World's Nuclear Weapons?

According to information compiled by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, an organization devoted to monitoring the status of the nuclear threat worldwide, nine countries had nukes by April 2004.

The nine countries are listed here.

And much more. . . .

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Obama and the Empire

By William Blum

I'm afraid that if Barack Obama becomes president

he's going to break a lot of young hearts.

And some older ones as well.

Writer Norman Solomon has written:

"These days, an appreciable number of Obama supporters are starting to use words like "disillusionment." But that's a consequence of projecting their political outlooks onto the candidate in the first place.

The best way to avoid becoming disillusioned is to not have illusions in the first place."

Continue

Friday, August 01, 2008

Extracts from Irregular Gipsland Peace Newsletter, No. 46 May-August 2008:

Irregular Gippsland Peace Newsletter Summary

No.46 May-August 2008
Price: free /Donation

Copyright: the Author. Feel free to send / copy / proliferate all or in part

Peter Gardner (ed) c/-PO Swifts Creek Australia 3896

ngarak@bigpond.com to receive full newsletter by email

The War and the Price of Fuel

Since the war in Iraq began there have been restrictions on supply of oil. Iraq is currently producing about 2 mill. barrels per day (bpd) whereas before the war the production level was 3.5 mill. bpd. World oil supply is consequently reduced by this amount. Further the uncertainty of supply is heightened in particular by the continuing threats against Iran - the fourth largest exporter of petroleum. Any such disruption in the Middle East - in particular if the Persian Gulf was closed or became a war zone would see oil price climb to astronomical levels. In the United States the threat of 'stagflation' looms.

From the outset the war in Iraq has been financed in the US by loose monetary policy at home and borrowing from abroad. This has led to a declining dollar and increased inflation in the US. In most instances this inflation is exported to other nations by higher fuel and commodity prices.

The price of fuel is in a major part the legacy of Bush, Blair and Howard's Iraq adventure. Unfortunately there seems no way out of the spiralling fuel costs and the Rudd government may find themselves the recipients of the eventual backlash in the electorate. It remains a puzzle why neither the ALP nor the media have spoken about the war and the price of oil in any meaningful way.

Labour's Actions

Whilst the Australian Defence Forces are technically no longer on combat duty in Iraq there are still over 1000 military personnel - many of them on HMAS Anzac. Whilst the belligerent attitude to Iran remains a priority of the US administration the ships in the Gulf are at high risk of a sudden attack or being involved in a wider conflict, regardless of whether it commences by accident or design. These sailors are certainly the largest and most vulnerable group of Australian forces overseas. Perhaps the most recent of Rudd's statements that we went to war under false intelligence - something even Blind Freddy knew in 2002 - may make the electorate consider what other effects the war had and is continuing to have on them. One wonders how long it will take for the war parties to admit their folly.

The (Good and Bad) Middle East War News

1. The former Prime Minister of Malaysia Mohammed Mahathir "speaking at (the) Imperial College in London... singled out US President George Bush, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australia's former prime minister John Howard as he wants to see them tried in absence for war crimes committed in Iraq". (ICH 27/4) (see also Monbiot & Kampmark below)

2. Australian combat troop involvement in Iraq has officially ended. (3/6 various)

The Murdoch Boycott & other Media News

In a brief Internet article Richard Neville asks: "can't we have scandals over things that matter more than budding pubic hair, like an $80 million corporate bonus being considered "fair", or that a sole tycoon can manipulate the media on several continents and be lauded." Counterpunch 27/5. See also below

New Anti War Australian Veterans Group Formed

Stand Fast is encouraging serving members of the Australian Defence Force to inform themselves about what is really happening in Iraq and Afghanistan and is prepared to provide advice and support for those who may question serving in these wars.

The anti-war group currently has members in Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney.

For further information
phone 0401 586 923,
email standfast.au@gmail.com
or visit http://www.stand-fast.webs.com
(thanks MAPW Newsletter)

Richard Neville and the Bill Henson Controversy

In a short article published on Counterpunch.com (27/5) Richard Neville exposed the hypocrisy in our society with regards child exploitation and art. In particular Neville notes: "Kids are not protected when subjected to U.S. air strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan, or when they are blown up by old American cluster bombs in Laos and Cambodia, which happens often and is reported rarely, because most of the space in the newspaper is devoted to the the Beckhams or Paris or Britneys' public meltdowns and the latest baby-bump sightings. Why pick on an art photographer when the substance which powers our whole society-oil-is starting to dry up."

Oil: A Global Crisis

The Iraq War means oil costs three times more than it should, says a leading expert.
How are our lives going to change as we struggle to cope with the $200 barrel?
By Geoffrey Lean

New Element on the Periodic Table

A major research institute has just announced the discovery of the densest element yet known to science. The new element has been named the "Bushcronium". Buchcronium has one neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 311.

These particles are held together by dark forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. The symbol for Bushcronium is "W". Buchcronium's mass actually increases over time, as morons randomly interact with various elements in the atmosphere and become assistant deputy neutrons in a Bushcronium molecule, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to believe that Bushcronium is formed whenever morons reach a certain level of concentration. This is hypothetically referred to as "Critical Morass".

When catalysed with money, Buchcronium activates Foxnewsium, an element that radiates orders of magnitude more energy, albeit as incoherent noise, since it has half as many peons, but twice as many morons. (Peace Priorities May/June 08)

War Criminals Must Fear Punishment.

by George Monbiot (excerpt)

3/6/08 "The Guardian"

"... I had no intention of arresting John Bolton, the former under-secretary of state at the US state department, when I arrived at the Hay festival. But during a panel discussion about the Iraq war, I remarked that the greatest crime of the 21st century had become so normalised that one of its authors was due to visit the festival to promote his book. I proposed that someone should attempt a citizens' arrest, in the hope of instilling a fear of punishment among those who plan illegal wars.

After the session I realised that I couldn't call on other people to do something I wasn't prepared to do myself. I knew that I was more likely to be arrested and charged than Mr Bolton. I had no intention of harming him, or of acting in any way that could be interpreted as aggressive, but had I sought only to steer him gently towards the police I might have faced a range of exotic charges, from false imprisonment to aggravated assault. I was prepared to take this risk. It is not enough to demand that other people act, knowing that they will not.

If the police, the courts and the state fail to prosecute what the Nuremberg tribunal described as "the supreme international crime", I believe we have a duty to seek to advance the process. The Nuremberg principles, which arose from the prosecution of Nazi war criminals, define as an international crime the "planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances".

Bolton appears to have "participated in a common plan" to prepare for the war (also defined by the principles as a crime) by inserting the false claim that Iraq was seeking to procure uranium from Niger into a state department factsheet.... http://www.monbiot.com


The High Cost of a Single War-Like Remark by Dave Lindorff (8/6)

Chaos in Afghanistan by Brian Cloughley

The Yellow Press by William S. Lind

John Howard and War Crimes by Binoy Kampmark