Stephen Lendman

On April 21, Security Council Resolution 2043 established UNSMIS. It authorized 300 observers to monitor "a cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties and to monitor and support the full implementation of the (Annan plan) to end the conflict in Syria." On June 16, UNSMIS suspended its activities subject to daily review.

On June 17, China's Xinhua News Agency headlined "Suspension of UN observer mission serves for western 'next step' in Syria," saying:

Next steps involve "political transition." Military options may be chosen. Syria said violence escalated markedly after UN monitors arrived. Insurgents carried out massacres and "at least five huge bombings....in different parts of the country...."

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said Washington is working with allies "regarding next steps toward a Syrian-led political transition" without Assad.

America wants war. It's "pushing for militarization...."

Reports say "around 6,000 people, including Arabs, Afghans and Turks, have been recruited and trained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to commit 'terrorist' acts in Syria."

On June 15, UN mission head General Robert Mood said:

"There appears to be a lack of willingness to seek a peaceful transition. Instead there is a push towards advancing military positions."

He pointed fingers largely at Assad. He left his real motives unexplained.

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Russia Today

As the Julian Assange case took a turn for the dramatic with his asylum request to Ecuador, in an exclusive interview to RT Christine Assange called the Australian government a puppet of the US that aided and abetted the persecution of her son.

RT: Now Julian hasn’t been charged yet, but he’s already seeking political asylum, so why now? Is it too early to take such a step?

Christine Assange: Julian not only hasn’t been charged, he hasn’t even been questioned despite asking the Swedish government to do so for the last two years. The concern is of course that given the flagrant abuses of his human and legal rights in the Swedish case for two years, their refusal to adhere to their own police procedures and their own prosecutorial standards, that were he to go to Sweden, where he would be jailed straightaway, uncharged and unquestioned, he would not have the opportunity then to seek political asylum.

RT: Ecuador has an extradition treaty with the United States, so even if the Latin American state gives the green light and shelters your son, do you think he’s going to be 100% safe there?

CA: Ecuador I believe does have an extradition treaty, but if it’s ascertained from the investigation that the person seeking asylum is actually a political prisoner, then they don’t hand that prisoner over. Now this is something that many nations have signed up to, but a lot of them aren’t actually acting upon it, including the UK. They should have turned down that European arrest warrant coming from Sweden, because Julian had made himself very much available for questioning in Sweden, contrary to what the mainstream media and our own attorney general is saying to the public. He could not get the Swedes to actually question him on the second rape allegation; the first time it was raised it was quashed within 24 hours by the chief prosecutor of Stockholm, it was then resurrected ten days later by a politician lawyer running for election. The woman submitted a condom which she said Julian had torn, but upon investigation by the forensics department, there was no DNA evidence, it was appealed to the prosecutor, they shopped around until they found one, and the prosecutor upheld the appeal, and Julian was not even told about the hearing, and so these abuses of his human rights and legal rights in Sweden, they go on and on and on.

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Paul Craig Roberts

The late MSU ornithologist George Wallace's robins gave Silent
Spring living--and dying--images that eventually helped lead to
the banning of DDT. (Photo: G.L. Kohuth)

With her 1962 book, Silent Spring, Rachel Carson got DDT and other synthetic pesticides banned and saved bird life. Today it is humans who are directly threatened by technologies designed to extract the maximum profit at the lowest private cost and the maximum social cost from natural resources.

Once abundant clean water has become a scarce resource. Yet, in the US ground water and surface water are being polluted and made unusable by mountain top removal mining, fracking and other such “new technologies.” Ranchers in eastern Montana, for example, are being forced out of ranching by polluted water.

Offshore oil drilling and chemical farming run-off have destroyed fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. In other parts of the world, explosives used to maximize short-run fish catches have destroyed coral reefs that sustained fish life. Deforestation for short-run agricultural production results in replacing bio-diverse rain forests with barren land. The “now generation” is leaving a resource-scarce planet to future generations.

Nuclear power plants are thoughtlessly built in earthquake and tsunami zones. Spent fuel rods are stored within the plants, a practice that adds their destructive potential to a catastrophic accident or act of nature.

The newest threat comes from genetically modified seeds that produce crops resistant to herbicides. The active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide is glyphosate, a toxic element that now contaminates groundwater in Spain and according to the US Geological Survey is now “commonly found in rain and streams in the Mississippi River Basin.”

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