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Monday, March 28, 2016

Recent issues


Michael Krieger at LibertyBlitzkrieg
Clinton Emails Reveal Google’s Role in Attempting to Oust Syria’s Assad


Eric Schmidt, the former chief executive officer of Google, will head a new Pentagon advisory board aimed at bringing Silicon Valley innovation and best practices to the U.S. military, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday.

Carter unveiled the new Defense Innovation Advisory Board with Schmidt during the annual RSA cyber security conference in San Francisco, saying it would give the Pentagon access to “the brightest technical minds focused on innovation.”

– From the Reuters article: Former Google CEO Schmidt to Head New Pentagon Innovation Board

It’s been observed for quite some time that Google isn’t just a private corporate behemoth, but that its executives are often times more intricately involved in U.S. foreign policy than most people would find appropriate.

It’d be one thing if this support was for....

....It should be noted that precisely at this time, the West, the Gulf states and Turkey, according to the DIA’s internal intelligence reports, were supporting AQI and other Islamist factions in Syria to “isolate” the Assad regime. By Flynn’s account, despite his warnings to the White House that an ISIS attack on Iraq was imminent, and could lead to the destabilization of the region, senior Obama officials deliberately continued the covert support to these factions.

“It was well known at the time that ISIS were beginning serious plans to attack Iraq. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey played a key role in supporting ISIS at this time, but the UAE played a bigger role in financial support than the others, which is not widely recognized.”
Springmann says that during his tenure at the US embassy in Jeddah, he was repeatedly asked by his superiors to grant illegal visas to Islamist militants transiting through Jeddah from various Muslim countries. He eventually learned that the visa bureau was heavily penetrated by CIA officers, who used their diplomatic status as cover for all manner of classified operations....

Palmyra freed from evil forces and their faciliators by the Syrian army backed by Russian air power. 


Patrick J Buchanan at AmericanConservative
The Rule-or-Ruin Republicans


“Things reveal themselves passing away,” wrote W. B. Yeats.

Whatever one may think of Donald Trump, his campaign has done us a service—exposing the underbelly of a decaying establishment whose repudiation by America’s silent majority is long overdue.

According to the New York Times, super PACs of Trump’s GOP rivals, including PACs of candidates who have dropped out, are raising and spending millions to destroy the probable nominee. Goals of the anti-Trump conspirators: Manipulate the rules and steal the nomination at Cleveland. Failing that, pull out all the stops and torpedo any Trump-led ticket in the fall. Then blame Trump and his followers for the defeat, pick up the pieces, and posture as saviors of the party they betrayed.

This is vindictiveness of a high order. It brings to mind the fable of the “The Dog in the Manger,” the tale of the snarling cur that, out of pure malice, kept the hungry oxen from the straw they needed to eat.

Last week came reports on another closed conclave of the “Never Trump” cabal at the Army and Navy Club in D.C. Apparently, William Kristol circulated a memo detailing how to rob Trump of the nomination, even if he finishes first in states, votes, and delegates.

Should Trump win on the first ballot, Kristol’s fallback position is to create a third party and recruit a conservative to run as its nominee. Purpose: Have this rump party siphon off enough conservative votes to sink Trump and give the presidency to Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose policies are more congenial to the neocons and Kristol’s Weekly Standard.

Among the candidates Kristol is reportedly proposing are ex-Governor Rick Perry of Texas and former Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, both respected conservatives.

Kristol contends a third-party ....

Brit analyst calls Saudi Arabia the "Saudi cult" of illiterates installed there by his government the UK. So true!


Putin's speech from TheSaker blog
Very important speech of Vladimir Putin


At a meeting in the Kremlin’s St George Hall, Vladimir Putin presented state decorations to service personnel and defence industry specialists who distinguished themselves in the performance of special missions in the Syrian Arab Republic. More than 700 officers and men of the Aerospace Forces, the Ground Forces and the Navy attended the ceremony, along with representatives of the military-industrial complex.

[Note from the Saker: emphasis added by me, the Saker]

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Comrade officers, friends,

I would like to welcome you – all the service personnel who took part in the operation in Syria.

All of you – pilots, sailors, service personnel of control bodies, of special purpose units, intelligence, communication and procurement, military advisers – acted consistently and with precision.

Words of special gratitude go to the female service personnel. You serve alongside men, with persistence and dignity. Your choice in life brings you our deep respect.

Thank you all for your dedication to our Fatherland.

Russia is proud of you, of its soldiers and officers who protect the interests of their homeland with a great degree professionalism and courage.

Comrade officers,

You remember what the situation was like in September of 2015. Back then, a significant part of the country was seized by terrorist groups, and the situation was getting worse.

In full compliance with international law, at the request of the legitimate government and the country’s president, we made a decision to launch ....

From BBC
Brussels attacks: Belgium releases terror murder suspect


A man known as Faycal C, the only person arrested and charged with involvement in the Brussels attacks, has been released for lack of evidence.

Belgian media said the man had been suspected of being the mystery third man in CCTV footage of the bombers.

But a judge found there was no evidence to justify holding him, the prosecutor's office said.

Last Tuesday's attacks on the airport and the city's metro system killed 35 people and injured more than 300....
 

From CNN
In Pakistan, Taliban's Easter bombing targets, kills scores of Christians

 

On Easter Sunday, a crisp spring day, some of the city's Christian population mingled with their Muslim neighbors, celebrating in a neighborhood park -- taking their kids on rides or pushing them on swings. Then, the sound of tragedy. ...

Ben Norton at Salon
“Israel is occupation-addicted”: 

Israeli journalist Gideon Levy blasts U.S. support for “apartheid” & rise of fascism
The renowned Israeli journalist joined a host of experts at the 2016 Israel's Influence conference in D.C.
“Israel is occupation-addicted,” said renowned Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, a columnist for the leading Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

“The drug addict who is your friend, if you give him money, he will really care about you. But are you really caring about him?” asked Levy, who called Israel’s almost 50-year-old illegal military occupation of Palestinian land “criminal,” “brutal” and “rotten.”

He was speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. for the annual Israel’s Influence conference. The event, held on March 18, explored the close relationship between the American and Israeli governments, and the impact it has on the rest of the Middle East.

The U.S. gives more than $3.1 billion in unconditional military aid to the Israeli government every year. Israel is by far the largest recipient of U.S. aid (Egypt comes in second, with $1.5 billion annually). And yet, in protest of the U.S.’s nuclear deal with Iran, the Israeli government is pushing for even more, up to $4.5 billion in tax dollars per year.

“Every single thing the Israelis do today is with the total approval and total financing of the United States,” Levy explained.

He criticized U.S. politicians, and particularly lawmakers, for their ignorance of basic facts about the Israel-Palestine conflict.

“Most American legislators know nothing, and what they know is a product of” propaganda, Levy said.

He proposed giving U.S. politicians a tour of the occupied Palestinian territories. Levy suggested that anyone who doubts that Israel oppresses the indigenous Arab population should spend “just a few hours in Hebron,” a Palestinian city (known in Arabic as al-Khalil) in the occupied West Bank.

“I’ve never met an honest human being who went to Hebron and didn’t come back shocked,” he added.....

Daniel McAdams at RonPaulInstitute discusses several topics with Dr Ron Paul (vid at link)
What does today's bombing in Brussels have to do with ISIS in Iraq?
Both feed the usual calls for military escalation in response to a problem created by military escalation in the first place. If ISIS is in Iraq as a result of the ill-fated 2003 US military action in Iraq, how can more military action in Iraq solve the problem? Likewise, if Europe's slavish adherence to the Washington-led interventionist foreign policy line has resulted in blowback attacks, how does signing on to more of what the Beltway neocons have to offer going to remedy the problem? Perhaps, strangely enough, we can learn from what President Reagan did in a similar situation...


Video at link.  Really worth a watch.  Unbelievable story about how in one of the richest countries in the world, this sorry state of affairs prevails while the MSM turns a blind eye and the real work to expose the dirt is left to small alternative media outfits who depend on donations to keep going.From DemocracyNow:

"Here's to Flint":   Broadcast Premiere of ACLU Documentary on the Fight for Democracy & Clean Water
As voters head to the polls in four states today, with Michigan seen as the top prize, the ongoing Flint water crisis has become a major campaign issue for Democrats. The crisis began when an unelected emergency manager appointed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder switched the source of Flint’s water to the corrosive Flint River in an apparent bid to save money. Today, in a Democracy Now! exclusive, we broadcast the ACLU of Michigan documentary "Here’s to Flint," produced by Michigan Journalist of the Year Curt Guyette and filmmaker Kate Levy. The film tells the inside story of how local residents, journalists and scientists organized to uncover the water contamination crisis that has sparked congressional hearings, the resignations of public officials and a national debate about the impacts of austerity and infrastructure decline in the United States.

Shobhan Saxena at TheRealNewsNetwork
A Coup is in the Air:

The Plot to Unsettle Rousseff, Lula and Brazil
Neoliberal parties, the corporate media, a conservative judiciary, oil lobbyists, the white elite and right-wing groups, with generous help from outside, have ganged up to derail the country’s government. And it’s all being made to look like a popular uprising against a corrupt regime
 In November 2009, The Economist put Brazil on its cover. Brazil Takes Off, read the headline, emblazoned on a photo of Rio’s iconic statue of Christ the Redeemer rising above blue waters like an inter-stellar rocket. Predicting that “Brazil is likely to become the world’s fifth-largest economy, overtaking Britain and France,” the magazine said that South America’s largest economy should “pick up more speed over the next few years as big new deep-sea oilfields come on stream, and as Asian countries still hunger for food and minerals from Brazil’s vast and bountiful land.”

In 2009, even as the world was reeling from a catastrophic financial crisis, The Economist saw Brazil as the great hope of global capitalism.

Back then, the British magazine was not the only one in love with Brazil. Under Lula da Silva’s leadership, the country was witnessing unprecedented prosperity and social change. Lula’s personal rise from shoe-shine boy and motor mechanic to the presidency of the biggest Latin American country was the stuff of legends. He was the subject of several books and a Brazilian box-office hit. At the G-20 summit in London in April 2009, US president Barrack Obama called him the “most popular politician on earth.” And with two of the biggest sporting spectacles – the FIFA World Cup (2014) and the Olympics (2016) – scheduled to happen in the country, Brazil, perennially branded the “country of the future,” finally appeared to be arriving on the global stage.

Seven years later, Brazil is looking like a completely different country. Lula, who retired in 2010 with an 80% approval rating, was detained this month for questioning in a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal that has seen ....

Saturday, March 26, 2016

MUST WATCH: Very candid interview with the young Yazidi girl serially raped by the monsters created by Saudi Arabia with ample help from USA, Israel, EU, Turkey, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and others


ISIS sex slave survivor:"They beat me, raped me, treated me like an animal"


Israel and Turkey picks up the wounded monsters from its borders, treats them, makes them whole again and sends them back so they can continue raping, killing, beheading and creating chaos in Syria and Iraq. Below just a couple of items from the alternative media on Israel's disgusting role in this conflict.  Of course, the MSM which is largely controlled by Jewish bigwigs will refrain from letting you know the very important role Israel plays in the mayhem going on in the Middle East and Africa.  Even if they do pen a few words on the issue, and only because of constant criticism coming from the alternative media, the lying rogues at the MSM will pretend that it's the "moderate rebels" that Israel is healing in their hospitals when we who know what's going on know that Israel and Turkey have been hand in glove arming and strengthening the wahhabi scum.

Yes, Israel prefers to stitch up the Frankensteins and send them to tear into young girls like in the vid above, but when a wounded Palestinian Israeli attacker is lying helpless in the Israeli streets, the all powerful, all mighty IDF (send more "pizza" money to make it stronger) shoots the man dead... while he is lying there unconscious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvBH671uoDE&feature=youtu.be

http://www.mintpressnews.com/israeli-hospital-treating-wounded-syrian-rebels/199464/
http://www.thenational.ae/world/revealed-how-syrian-rebels-seek-medical-help-from-an-unlikely-source-in-israel

Over and above the vomit-inducing behaviour of the increasingly despicable Netanyahu+ gang, take a look below at what Israel and its partners in the ongoing atrocities in the Middle East and Africa have been doing to ensure that the monsters they have created are fully equipped to continue raping, killing, destroying.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/10/06/where-does-the-islamic-state-get-its-weapons/
http://www.timesofisrael.com/syria-says-it-captured-israeli-weapons-from-rebels/
http://truthlibrary.info/2016/02/16/us-and-israeli-weapons-found-with-terrorists-in-syria/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/logistics-101-where-does-isis-get-its-guns/5454726
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/19/us-weapons-to-syria-repeats-historical-mistake
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11203825/Syrian-rebels-armed-and-trained-by-US-surrender-to-al-Qaeda.html
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/175207#.VvXe5FJC19k

Friday, March 25, 2016

The Never-ending Comedy of the US Presidential Election










Israeli "Defence" Force (IDF) executes wounded Palestinian attacker ...


in just one execution, from several in any given week, that "unfortunately" was caught on camera.
Most Israelis have become truly extremely evil. There's no excuse whatsover, for this atrocity, NONE.  We have learnt to expect such behaviour from Muslim extremists, do we now have to think of Israelis as equal to or even worse than those kind of Muslims?


From TheGuardian
UN envoy condemns Palestinian attacker's 'gruesome' killing by Israeli soldier
Nickolay Mladenov enters row over death of Abed al Fatah a-Sharif, who died after stabbing attack on Israel soldier

The United Nations special envoy for the Middle East peace process joined the growing row over what he called the “apparent extra-judicial execution of a Palestinian assailant” by an Israeli soldier in Hebron, condemning it as a “gruesome” killing.



Nickolay Mladenov’s intervention in the dispute over the killing of the severely wounded Abed al Fatah a-Sharif – who had already been shot and incapacitated during a stabbing attack on an Israeli soldier – followed the release on Thursday of a video of the shooting.

In a statement, Mladenov, who reports to the UN security council, said: “I strongly condemn yesterday’s apparent extrajudicial execution of a Palestinian assailant in Hebron in the occupied West Bank. This was a gruesome, immoral and unjust act that can only fuel more violence and escalate an already volatile situation.”

Mladenov’s statement came as the family and lawyer of the unnamed soldier arrested for the shooting attempted to explain his actions, and as the investigation by the Israeli military was widened to take into account the actions of officers also at the scene. The soldier, a combat medic, is facing an initial court hearing in Jaffa on Friday.

The killing, filmed by a volunteer with the Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem, and widely reported and circulated on social media, has drawn widespread condemnation including from senior Israeli and Palestinian political figures.

The video shows what appears to be one of the most flagrant cases so far of Israeli forces’ alleged use of excessive force in the wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence that erupted in October.

The incident was immediately condemned as an “execution” by B’Tselem and as a war crime by Palestinians.....

One size fits all who created uprisings and wars in Muslim lands





Palmyra about to be reclaimed by legitimate govt of Syria, but USA would prefer it remained with ISIS ?

Unbelievable!!!
After reading the good news that the Syrian army has taken back the first part of the historic site of Palmyra and that the army was making gains further into this very important location, much to my utter disgust I read that the USA is not happy that ISIS is about to be defeated in Palmyra. Yes, you read that right. See 2nd link below for more.


From BBC
Palmyra: Syrian government forces 'retake citadel'
Syrian government forces are reportedly advancing further into Palmyra, battling Islamic State militants for control of the ancient city.

The official Sana news agency reported that troops had taken a reconstructed 13th Century castle perched on a hill to the west of the Roman-era ruins.

IS seized the Unesco World Heritage site and adjoining modern town in May.

It subsequently destroyed two 2,000-year-old temples, an arch and funerary towers, drawing global outrage.

The jihadist group, which has also demolished several pre-Islamic sites in neighbouring Iraq, believes that such structures are idolatrous.
Syrian state media and activists reported that there was heavy fighting between government forces, backed by Russian air strikes, and IS militants on the outskirts of Palmyra on Friday.

In the morning, troops took full control of the so-called SyriaTel Hill on the western edge before taking the nearby castle, known as Qalaat Shirkuh or Qalaat Ibn Maan, a military sources told Sana.

Pro-government Al-Mayadeen TV said the castle, which sits on a 150m-high hilltop overlooking the ruins, was of strategic importance....

...In addition to its ruins, Palmyra is situated in a strategically important area on the road between the capital, Damascus, and the contested eastern city of Deir al-Zour....

From ZeroHedge
Caught On Tape: State Dept. Says Maybe Russia, Syrian Army Shouldn't Take Palmyra From ISIS
Last May, the world was horrified to learn that the band of marauding, black-flag waving, sword-wielding jihadist desert bandits we all know as the CIA-spawn called ISIS had overrun the ancient city of Palmyra. A UNESCO world heritage site, the city is known for its picturesque ancient ruins and boasts a rich cultural history that brings together Greek, Roman and Persian influences.

The fear - well besides the worry that the militants might murder all the men and enslave the women and children - was that ISIS would destroy the city’s architectural treasures. Those fears were realized in October when reports indicated that the group had blown up the Triumphal Archs, a 2,000 year-old monument that dates back to the Roman empire. Here's a drone flyover of the destruction:
“It’s a crime in every sense of the word,” Syria’s chief of antiquities said. “All we can do is share the sadness.”

Yes, “a crime in every sense of the word,” but destroying the Arch wasn’t the only “crime” ISIS committed at the city’s vaunted ruins. The militants also put on a rather horrific (if morbidly epic) display in The Roman Theatre where city residents were forced to watch as two dozen teenage ISIS trainees carried out a mass execution of captured SAA soldiers. ....
....So, after nine months in ISIS hands, the Russians, Hezbollah, and the SAA are about to liberate a UNESCO world heritage site from the most brutal jihadist organization the world has ever known. Unequivocally good right?

Not necessarily, according to the US State Dept. Watch below as spokesman Mark Toner tries to explain to reporters why it may be better if ISIS holds onto its territory. "You know I mean look... broadly speaking .... you know... it's not a great choice... an either/or... but... you know..."

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Belgium, where unelected VIPoliticians reign supreme and dance in a closed embrace the terrorism tango ...


with the USA in Muslim countries of the Middle East and Africa, suffered terrorism attacks today from those they terrorize. 

I feel sorry for the innocent who are usually at the receiving end of such tragedies.  Wonder if any amongst the dead, dying and severely wounded or otherwise, ever raised their voices against the warmongers in their government who bombed the families, friends and neighbours (innocents again) of the terrorists who have now carried out these horrendous acts in Brussels.
We reap what we sow.  It's that simple. 
It's foolish to keep blaming Muslims and their religion.  Most of us here in the West, without even the excuse of a religion, are bombing millions of Muslims in Muslim lands.
Aren't we all terrorists????

Assad of Syria said during an interview last year:
"Terrorism is like a scorpion, if you put it in your pocket, it will sting you"


Michelle Hackman at Vox
The most important things to read to understand how Brussels became a terrorism hub
Bomb blasts rocked an international airport and a metro stop in Brussels this morning, killing at least 34 and thrusting Belgium's ties to terrorist plots back into the spotlight.

For years now, a number of terrorist plots in Europe and abroad have connected back to Brussels, the capital of Belgium.

Belgium is a relatively small country, but its capital is home to a well-oiled underground jihadist pipeline that has sent more than 400 fighters to Syria, making the nation Europe’s largest per capita source of fighters to Syria.

Belgian gunmen helped carry out the Paris attacks on November 13. But Belgian involvement in terrorism plots goes back at least as far as the Madrid train attacks in 2004, when one of the suspected terrorists came from the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek.

On Friday, the man believed to be the mastermind behind the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, was captured by police in Brussels. He was the last known living suspect in the Paris attacks, though police are now looking for several other men who they believe were closely linked to his operations.

Abdeslam's capture triggered fear that terrorists would launch a retaliatory attack, and indeed officials across the city attempted to prepare for such a likelihood, increasing police presence at the airport and throughout the city’s metro system — where today’s attacks occurred.

But how did Belgium find itself at the center of a burgeoning terrorist network? Here are a few sources of reading to help you get a clearer picture.
Most of the suspected terrorists originate from just one neighborhood: Molenbeek

1) A portrait of Molenbeek: At first glance, ....

RIP dear Rob Ford, ex-Mayor of Toronto

Sincere condolences to near and dear ones. **Sigh**

From CBC
Rob Ford, former Toronto mayor, dead at 46

Millionaire with working-class attitude, cost-cutting crusader who favoured subway expansion

Rob Ford, the former Toronto mayor who polarized voters with his brash, uncompromising political style and became an international celebrity for his drug and alcohol use while in office, has died. He was 46.
Ford died this morning after battling cancer since 2014. His death was confirmed by his chief of staff Dan Jacobs, who issued the following statement:
"With heavy hearts and profound sadness, the Ford family announces the passing of their beloved son, brother, husband, and father, Councillor Rob Ford earlier today at the age of 46.

A dedicated man of the people, Councillor Ford spent his life serving the citizens of Toronto.

The family asks that you respect their privacy and join them in their grieving and their prayers.

The family will not be making any statements to the media or taking any questions. Information will follow at a later time regarding memorial services.

Over his decade and a half in municipal politics, Ford won a devoted following for being a straight talker who championed the average taxpayer."

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Honduras in the news and Hillary Clinton's yet another blunder there brought to light


Nice to see that many from the alternative media are throwing sunlight on one of many, many, many disastrous regime changes orchestrated by the USA government. In the case of Honduras, it has brought even more unrest and suffering to the poor.
 
USA indulges in these adventures not for the love of democracy, far from it. It's not because the dear, sweet Americans are crying their eyes out for the poor of those unfortunate countries targeted for regime change ... far from it.  The only reason, the ONLY one is this: USA goes into those countries through their corporations and banking systems to loot the resources in order to award the 1%  powers-that-be. That's it!  Nothing else!

Marjorie Cohn at ConsortiumNews
Hillary’s Link to Honduran Violence

A critical difference between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton is their position on whether children who fled violence in Central American countries, particularly Honduras, two years ago should be allowed to stay in the United States or be returned.

Sen. Sanders states unequivocally that they should be able to remain in the U.S. Former Secretary of State Clinton disagrees. She would guarantee them “due process,” but nothing more. In 2014, Clinton told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, “It may be safer [for the children to remain in the U.S.],” but “they should be sent back.”

By supporting the June 28, 2009 coup d’état in Honduras when she was secretary of state, Clinton helped create the dire conditions that caused many of these children to flee. And the assassination of legendary Honduran human rights leader Berta Cáceres earlier this month can be traced indirectly to Clinton’s policies.

During the Feb. 11 Democratic debate in Milwaukee, Clinton said that sending the children back would “send a message.” In answer to a question by debate moderator Judy Woodruff of PBS, she said, “Those children needed to be processed appropriately, but we also had to send a message to families and communities in Central America not to send their children on this dangerous journey in the hands of smugglers.”

Sanders retorted, “Who are you sending a message to? These are children who are....

From DemocracyNow
Slain Activist Berta Cáceres' Daughter: US Military Aid Has Fueled Repression & Violence in Honduras

Another indigenous environmentalist has been murdered in Honduras, less than two weeks after the assassination of renowned activist Berta Cáceres. Nelson García was shot to death Tuesday after returning home from helping indigenous people who had been displaced in a mass eviction by Honduran security forces. García was a member of COPINH, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, co-founded by Berta Cáceres, who won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize last year for her decade-long fight against the Agua Zarca Dam, a project planned along a river sacred to the indigenous Lenca people. She was shot to death at her home on March 3. On Thursday, thousands converged in Tegucigalpa for the start of a mobilization to demand justice for Berta Cáceres and an end to what they say is a culture of repression and impunity linked to the Honduran government’s support for corporate interests. At the same time, hundreds of people, most of them women, gathered outside the Honduran Mission to the United Nations chanting "Berta no se murió; se multiplicó – Berta didn’t die; she multiplied." We speak with Cáceres’s daughter, Bertha Zúniga Cáceres, and with Lilian Esperanza López Benítez, the financial coordinator of COPINH....



Part 2 is  here

Greg Grandin at TheNation
Before Her Murder, Berta Cáceres Singled Out Hillary Clinton for Criticism

The presidential candidate has ignored criticism of her role in enabling the consolidation of the Honduran coup.
Before her murder on March 3, Berta Cáceres, a Honduran indigenous rights and environmental activist, named Hillary Clinton, holding her responsible for legitimating the 2009 coup. “We warned that this would be very dangerous,” she said, referring to Clinton’s effort to impose elections that would consolidate the power of murderers.

In a video interview, given in Buenos Aires in 2014, Cáceres says it was Clinton who helped legitimate and institutionalize the coup. In response to a question about the exhaustion of the opposition movement (to restore democracy), Cáceres says (around 6:10): “The same Hillary Clinton, in her book Hard Choices, practically said what was going to happen in Honduras. This demonstrates the bad legacy of North American influence in our country. The return of Mel Zelaya to the presidency (that is, to his constitutionally elected position) was turned into a secondary concern. There were going to be elections.” Clinton, in her position as secretary of state, pressured (as her emails show) other countries to agree to sideline the demands of Cáceres and others that Zelaya be returned to power. Instead, Clinton pushed for the election of what she calls in Hard Choices a “unity government.” But Cáceres says: “We warned that this would be very dangerous.… The elections took place under intense militarism, and enormous fraud.”   

The Clinton-brokered election did indeed install and legitimate a militarized regime based on repression. In the interview, Cáceres says that Clinton’s coup-government, under pressure from Washington, passed terrorist and intelligence laws that criminalized political protest. Cáceres called it “counterinsurgency,” carried out on behalf of “international capital”—mostly resource extractors—that has terrorized the population, murdering political activists by the high hundreds. “Every day,” Cáceres said elsewhere, “people are killed.”   

Interestingly, Hillary Clinton removed the most damning sentences regarding her role in legitimating the Honduran coup from the paperback edition of Hard Choices. ....

From TheRealNewsNetwork
.....And Berta was always identifying three main evils that she called them, or systemic forces would more likely be the word she would have used. Capitalism, the idea that people who don't live and work on the land will decide what happens on that land. Racism, which has [Lenca] a group that had been made invisible for hundreds and hundreds of years. She is playing a key role in making them visible again within Honduras and in the world, and will be one of her major legacies, and the legacy of her group, COPINH, in breaking that isolation. The racism involved in that. And patriarchy, which she constantly ran into as a, as a strong woman, a strong, indigenous woman. She will be seen as a model for indigenous people. She was, she is unwavering in her willingness to say yes, I speak to the river, and yes, I speak on a cell phone. And those things are not contradictory.

So this is a, this is a woman--they've made a martyr right now in Honduras. And if you go on social media in Honduras right now you'll see it. They've created a martyr last night that is of a size and stature that Central America may not have seen since I was born, in 30 or more years, maybe since Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980......




Lee Fang at The Intercept
During Honduras Crisis, Clinton Suggested Back Channel With Lobbyist Lanny Davis

The Hillary Clinton emails released last week include some telling exchanges about the June 2009 military coup that toppled democratically elected Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, a leftist who was seen as a threat by the Honduran establishment and U.S. business interests.

At a time when the State Department strategized over how best to keep Zelaya out of power while not explicitly endorsing the coup, Clinton suggested using longtime Clinton confidant Lanny Davis as a back-channel to Roberto Micheletti, the interim president installed after the coup.

During that period, Davis was working as a consultant to a group of Honduran businessmen who had supported the coup.

In an email chain discussing a meeting between Davis and State Department officials, Clinton asked, “Can he help me talk w Micheletti?”

Davis rose to prominence as an adviser to the Clintons during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and has since served as a high-powered “crisis communications” adviser to a variety of people and organizations facing negative attention in the media, from scandal-plagued for-profit college companies to African dictators. His client list has elicited frequent accusations of hypocrisy.

Davis was not the only foreign agent with access to Clinton. As The Guardian and Politico have reported, other emails point to lobbyists with direct access to Clinton’s personal email.

The request to talk to Davis came ....

From GlobalResearch
US Role in the Assassination of Honduran Activist Berta Cáceres Goes Unmentioned in US Media

....In her memoirs, Clinton herself discloses she had no intention on restoring the elected President Zelaya to power. “In the subsequent days [after the coup] I spoke with my counterparts around the hemisphere, including Secretary Espinosa in Mexico. We strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras,” Clinton wrote, “and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot.”

On September 28, State Department officials blocked the OAS from adopting a resolution that would have refused to recognize Honduran elections carried out under the dictatorship—giving the US’s final seal of approval to the military coup that began three months prior.....

....The Washington Post, Guardian, NBC, CNN and NPR didn’t mention the 2009 coup that brought to power Cáceres’ likely murderers, let alone the US’s tacit involvement in the coup. TheNew York Times did briefly mention it, but omitted US responsibility:...

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Yemen ... a nation's suffering that the MSM thinks is not fit to print


Yemen, the poorest nation in the zone of the oil rich Muslim nations, is being reduced to a pile of rubbish, its citizens blown to pieces. Besides being internally displaced, millions of Yemenis have fled to neighboring countries.
 

Warning: You might find some of the pics in the links below disturbing ... but then, that is exactly my intention.  Imagine all that mayhem and gore happening to you and your dear ones and perhaps then  you might peel open your eyes and see what the governments of the West are doing to other human beings whom they consider to be "collateral" damage in their blood thirst for accumulating wealth.  Is this what you voted for? If not, then why aren't you criticizing your government arming the aggressors?  Why aren't you holding protest marches?  Why aren't you showing your frustration by starting a blog or getting on Twitter or Facebook and saying what's on your mind? 

The link also has fantastic information on various other conflicts and has given a day-to-day report on Yemen.  The last entry is March 6, 2016 (see pic below).

Saudi Arabia's destruction of Yemen in Dec 2015
Saudi Arabia's destruction of Yemen in Jan 2016
Saudi Arabia's destruction of Yemen in Feb 2016


Egyptian lawmakers' "No niqab for you" sounds like heavenly music


Some dictators can be tolerated with a wide smile.  Sisi of Egypt is one of them.  If the Egyptian women are so very illiterate, they definitely deserved to be dragged out of their caves.

From Quartz:
Egyptian lawmakers want to ban Muslim women from covering their faces

Egyptian lawmakers are pushing for a ban on the niqab, a veil worn by women that covers most of one’s face, in what has become a fight over personal liberties and the government’s attempt to control religion in Egyptian society.

The pro-government Egypt Support Coalition, a group of lawmakers within parliament, told local media that it is drafting a bill to present to parliament that bars Muslim women from wearing the veil in public places or in state institutions. “We seek to spread moderate Islam,” Amna Nuseir, a member of the group told Gulf News. “The niqab is not an Islamic duty.”

The niqab, a symbol of rising Islamic conservatism to some, has been a source of tension for years. Authorities ruled that American University’s satellite campus in Cairo could not ban women from wearing the veil in 2007. But in 2009, Egypt’s oldest university, al-Azhar, banned women from wearing the niqab in classrooms and dormitories. Other universities prohibited women from wearing the veil during exams on the grounds that it could facilitate cheating.

A recent ban on the niqab at Cairo University was expanded this month to include female staff at the school’s teaching hospitals and medical departments. In October, university officials said female teachers were not allowed to wear the veil while lecturing. Upscale venues in Cairo have barred women wearing the niqab from entering on security grounds, claiming that it obscures one’s identity.....

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Turkey's slide into civil war has begun


The question now should be:  Will the EU still insist on keeping its head lodged firmly in the sand by inducting Turkey into the EU?  Imagine what's going to happen when that happens.


Guess what a husband of a husband is doing in the Dominican Republic


Why is it that gays want others to be gays too?  What is with these folks that they can't let well enough alone.  If someone wants to come out of the closet, they will.  No need to push and shove.
Sexual perversion is not everybody's bag of tricks and the LGBT community should be warded off from appearing to do favors when none are solicited for nor needed.
 

Martin Arauxo and Manuel Miranda writing at TheSaker blog
Activist USA Ambassador pushes aggressive LGBT agenda in the caribbean

Obama ambassadorial appointee and LGBT activist, James Wally Brewster has endeavored to promote alternative lifestyle values in the conservative Dominican Republic.

Ever since Ambassador Brewster (who donated heavily to Barak Obama) arrived in the D.R. he has been pushing against the traditional values of the majority, by openly and steadily attempting to steer the nation into accepting ultra liberal North American culture.

He took under his stewardship the various LGBT groups on the island nation and has now set up an exclusive LGBT chamber of commerce for them (in spanish).

Using the tremendous resources of the State Department, USA ambassador Brewster has coordinated with USAID to channel the not too shabby sum of one million dollars to this boutique chamber of commerce, but also to (and here’s the kicker) to any political candidates who are openly LGBT or support their agenda, this was all celebrated ironically on the so called Zero Discrimination day, sponsored by the UN .

USAID Director in the D.R. Alexandria Panehal, explicitly stated that this was to advance the “LGBT agenda”  (English) in the country by supporting candidates who back their roadmap.

Ambassador Brewster who is married to Bob Satawake (both wealthy Chicago businessmen) have continuously defied the country’s traditional culture by enforcing the LGBT agenda, the non-career diplomat has threatened to take away visas from those who also oppose his anti-corruption drives which involved further meddling of a foreign ambassador into the private affairs of a sovereign nation.....

South Sudan government reportedly letting soldiers rape women in lieu of pay


Could this be true?  We have become so very jaded by now that anything and everything we read is suspect. Clearly, if true, this is a war crime but as it's not happening in that particular patch of the world which takes up the world's self appointed policeman's focus every second of the day, every week of the month, every month of the year, every year of every decade ... who cares, right?  As long as the chaos is maintained at its highest level in the Middle East Muslim countries, all's well in and with, the planet of the USA.

From Quartz
The South Sudanese government is allowing soldiers to rape women in lieu of pay
The South Sudanese government is deliberately targeting civilians as part of a “scorched earth policy” that includes rape, killing, and pillaging, according to the United Nations and Amnesty International.

Both the government and opposition groups have attacked civilians since fighting broke out in December 2013, but a UN report published today (March 11) claims that state actors “bore the greatest responsibility for the violations of both international and human rights law.”....

....Rape has become part of an intentional strategy to “terrorize and punish the population,” according the UN report. Groups allied with the government are raping women as a substitute for wages, page 48 of the report says:

    The assessment team received information that the armed militias, mainly comprising of youth from Mayom or Koch who carry out attacks together with the SPLA commit violations under an agreement of “do what you can and take what you can.” Most of the youth therefore also raided cattle, stole personal property, raped and abducted women and girls as a form of payment.

More than 1,300 reports of rape were recorded in just one state, Unity, over the course of five months last year. Gang rapes are common and women are being forced into sexual slavery or forced to marry their abductors. ....

Political cartoons ... March 2016











USA kills 150 Somali jihadists who were supposedly getting ready to do dirty


If true, US managed to get rid of 150 jihadis in Somalia (see second link disputing that figure).  If it could do this in Somalia, why wasn't it able to do same in Syria?  Isn't the answer because USA and its allies had no intention of doing away with the headchoppers there until Russia showed up to show the world what many of us already knew?
From BBC
US air strike 'kills 150 Somali militants' A US air strike has killed more than 150 al-Shabab militants in Somalia, the Pentagon says.

Spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said the strike hit a training camp where a "large-scale" attack was being planned.

"We know they were going to be departing the camp and they posed an imminent threat to US and [African Union] forces," Captain Davis said.

"Initial assessments are that more than 150 terrorist fighters were eliminated," he added.

Mr Davis said the strike, by both drones and manned aircraft, took place on Saturday and targeted Raso Camp, a training facility about 120 miles (195km) north of the capital, Mogadishu.

....Also on Monday, the Australian navy said it had seized a huge cache of weapons on a fishing boat off the coast of Oman that was apparently heading for Somalia.

Grenade launchers, machine guns, and 2,000 assault rifles were concealed under fishing nets, a Navy spokesman said.....

From GuardianUK
Somali cattle herder describes 
 US airstrike on al-Shabaab training camp

    ‘It was like a burnt house. Al-Shabaab fighters were collecting dead bodies’
    Islamist group confirms attack but says death toll of 150 is exaggerated

A local cattle herder has given the first eyewitness account of the US airstrike on an Islamist militant training camp in Somalia that killed scores of fighters.

Pentagon officials claimed that more than 150 members of the al-Shabaab militant group were killed in the surprise raid by planes and unmanned MQ-9 Reaper drones near Raso over the weekend. The al-Qaida linked group confirmed the airstrike but rejected the death toll as exaggerated.
Bashir Dhure, a herder living nearby, said the camp had been set up in a new and secret location in an attempt to avoid Somali and western intelligence, but was targeted on Saturday night.

“There were big explosions,” he told the Guardian. “All nearby places were caught on fire and no one knew what was happening. In the morning I could see the smoke coming from the bombarded training facility.

“It was like a burnt house. Everything turned burnt. I saw three vehicles burnt down. Al-Shabaab fighters were collecting dead bodies. They were put on trucks and took out of the village. We do not know where they were buried,” he said in a telephone interview.

Following the airstrike, angry al-Shabaab fighters started searching .....

Zika virus hoax


WHO probably needs more funding, so every couple of years we are hit with these exotic sounding viruses.  We can expect to hear of many more such productions.  Don't you just love their names?
Zika, Yaba, West Nile.  Someone at WHO is having fun choosing names from the bottom of the alphabet.  What next "X-fever"?



Monday, March 7, 2016

Summit on Saudi Arabia held in Washington DC


Code Pink hosted several speakers at the Summit on Saudi Arabia and TRNN has all the speeches.
IMO, from the few I have listened to so far, the most impassioned one was from the son of the murdered pacifist cleric Al-Nimr.

2016 Summit on Saudi Arabia:  Understanding the Kingdom and its Global Role

Speakers included the following:

2016 Summit on Saudi Arabia: The Foreign Policy of the 1%    
Vijay Prashad, author and professor at Trinity College

2016 Summit on Saudi Arabia: Human Rights    
Sunjeev Bery, Amnesty International, Dr. Sharat G. Lin, scholar on Middle Eastern migrant labor and Julianne Hill, Reprieve U.S. Legal Fellow. Moderator: Andrea Miller

2016 Summit on Saudi Arabia: Women in Saudi Arabia    
Ebtihal Mubarak, Saudi journalist and Kristine Beckerle, Human Rights Watch. Moderator: Jodie Evans

2016 Summit on Saudi Arabia: Saudi Foreign Policy    
Mohammed Al-Shami, Yemeni-American activist, Jamal Abdi, National Iranian American Council and Matar Matar, Bahraini politician and activist. Moderator: Joanne Landy

2016 Summit on Saudi Arabia: Supporting Change in Saudi Arabia    
Mohammed Al-Nimr, son of executed Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr, Daniel Arshack, lawyer for imprisoned attorney Waleed Abu al-Khair, Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini, Executive Director, International Civil Society Network (ICAN). Moderator: Nada Khader

2016 Summit on Saudi Arabia: Oil, weapons sales, and U.S.-Saudi ties    
William Hartung, Center for International Policy, Raed Jarrar, American Friends Service Committee, Robert Vitalis, author and professor at University of Pennsylvania, Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies

More here about the summit here.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Turkey's goose is simmering on a slow and steady fire


Does this not look like the beginning days of  a civil war? To me, it does.  Turkey's Erdogan has been in bed with the Western-backed jihadis in Syria from day one.  Unfortunately, for the wannabe caliph, if he thinks the West will come to his rescue because he has been its lapdog in their plot against Syria's Assad, the man is delusional.  From the adverse publicity against his government which is now on the rise, not only at the BBC but surprisingly, also in spite of  the "election mania" drenched USA media, we can surmise that the powers-that-be have decided that "Erdogan must go."
Karma is a bitch, a real nasty whore.




From BBC
Turkey police raid critical Zaman newspaper in Istanbul
Turkish police have raided the offices of the opposition Zaman newspaper, hours after a court ruling placed it under state control.

Police entered the building in Istanbul late on Friday, firing tear gas at protesters who had gathered outside.

Zaman is closely linked to the Hizmet movement of influential US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Turkey says Hizmet is a "terrorist" group aiming to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.

Mr Gulen was once an ally of Mr Erdogan but the two fell out.

Many Hizmet supporters have been arrested. ....



.....Last year, two newspapers and two television channels were put under state administration over their alleged links with the Hizmet movement....

From BBC
Zaman newspaper: Defiant last edition as Turkey police raid
Turkey's biggest newspaper, Zaman, has condemned its takeover by the authorities in a defiant last edition published just before police raided it.

Saturday's edition said Turkey's press had experienced "one of the darkest days in its history".

Turkish police raided Zaman's offices hours after a court ruling placed it under state control, but managers were still able to get the edition to print.

Zaman readers have protested against the takeover outside the offices.

Police dispersed the demonstration, numbering about 500 people, with tear gas and water cannon. The newspaper's supporters chanted "Free press cannot be silenced".



A number of the journalists returned to work on Saturday, but some of them tweeted that:
they had lost access to internal servers and were  not able to file articles
they were not able to access their email accounts
the newspaper's editor-in-chief Abdulhamit Bilici and a leading columnist had been fired

One reporter, Abdullah Bozturk, said attempts were also under way to wipe the newspaper's entire online archive.....

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Allah's headchopper in Moscow


Islam drives people mad, PERIOD.  Just as the sun is responsible for the climate change we are experiencing, so also is Islam responsible for insanity.  I am not giving a pass to Christianity and Judaism either.  All three religions, if you fanatically follow their tenets, you are a nutcase, and should be put away before bringing harm to your fellow beings.

From RT
‘Allah ordered me’ to kill child: Beheading nanny appears smiling in court
 The nanny accused of beheading a four-year-old girl in Moscow and waving her severed head outside a Metro station told journalists before a court hearing that ‘Allah ordered’ her to murder the child.

Gulchekhra Bobokulova from Uzbekistan appeared in court on Wednesday over the gruesome murder of the girl in her care. She was detained on Monday near Oktyabrskoye Polye Metro station in northwestern Moscow, where she was waving the child’s severed head and shouting “Allahu Akbar, I am a terrorist, I am a suicide bomber.”...

What stands out from the "super Tuesday" in the US primaries?


Something, I can't put my finger on, is going on in Texas.  I know there's something happening there, but what ... that's the question.
 

Could it be that the powers-that-be actually ruling USA have focused their energies on the States that would have given them the most resistance?  In any art of war maneuver, isn't it a well-known fact that the strongest bolt is the one that needs to be weakened before starting to unscrew the rest of the framework?
 

It's yours to figure out, I am just a conspiracy nut and am possibly seeing things where there's nothing to see.

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