Stephen Lendman

Lyndon Johnson wanted war on Vietnam and got it. The August 1964 false flag Gulf of Tonkin incident initiated full-scale conflict after Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. War was authorized without declaring it. It's an American tradition. Big lies launch wars. Manufactured pretexts initiate them. Mass killing and destruction follow. One nation after another is ravaged. Syria's next, then Iran, followed by other states on Washington's hit list.

On June 22, Turkey provocatively flew two warplanes at low altitude over Syrian airspace. It wanted a response and got it. On June 23, Syria's SANA state media headlined "Military Spokesman: Anti-Air Defenses Intercepted a Target That Violated Syrian Airspace Over Territorial Waters, Shot It Down West of Lattakia," saying:

"At 11:40 AM on 22/6/2012, an unidentified aerial target violated Syrian airspace, coming from the west at a very low altitude and at high speed over territorial waters, so the Syrian anti-air defenses counteracted with anti-aircraft artillery, hitting it directly as it was 1 kilometer away from land, causing it to crash into Syrian territorial waters west of Om al-Tuyour village in Lattakia province, 10 kilometers from the beach."

Syria's military spokesman also said naval forces from both countries were "searching for the two missing pilots." Some media sources said both crew members were rescued. Others said they're still missing.

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Peter Eyre

Any unauthorized incursion into national airspace by a foreign aircraft--or "aerial intrusion"--would thus violate customary sovereignty and the Chicago Convention. The affected State would then have the legal right to respond by intercepting the offending aircraft and turning it away; forcing it to land at a designated airfield; impounding the aircraft if it lands; or even shooting it down. - (Chicago Convention) Business Library

What we are looking at right now is clearly a possible “False Flag” incident to justify an action against Syria when the shooting down of the Turkish Air Force Phantom jet fighter was perfectly legitimate under international law and UN guidelines on the rules of engagement.

The BBC carried the following headline in its biased coverage of this incident when it said:

“Turkey calls NATO meeting on warplane downed by Syria - Turkey has called a meeting of NATO member states to discuss its response to the shooting down of one of its warplanes by Syrian forces on Friday. Ankara has invoked Article 4 of NATO charter, under which consultations can be requested when an ally feels their security is threatened, officials say. Earlier, Turkey's foreign minister said the F-4 Phantom was in international airspace when it was shot down.”

I find this entire episode truly getting very much out of control with even the Turkish Government now changing their story since the incident on Friday and even in this same BBC article one can read Turkey´s Foreign Ministry stating: “It knew the coordinates of the jet, which was in Syrian territorial waters at a depth of 1,300m (4,265ft), but has not yet found it”...So, why the hype and why is this escalating into a possible armed conflict between NATO and Syria, and why has the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today expressed “his deep concern” about the incident.

Clearly the scene is almost set for action against Syria that believe it or not was planned almost 20 years ago and has nothing to do with the current situation and clearly shows that the UK, US, France and Germany are hell bent into forcing yet another Libya style regime change all in the name of misinformation and whom are clearly arming, funding and assisting the rebel army in Syria.

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John Pilger

A Vietnamese villager rows his boat through an area of forest
devastated by Agent Orange - 1970

Arriving in a village in southern Vietnam, I caught sight of two children who bore witness to the longest war of the 20th century. Their terrible deformities were familiar. All along the Mekong river, where the forests were petrified and silent, small human mutations lived as best they could.

Today, at the Tu Du paediatrics hospital in Saigon, a former operating theatre is known as the "collection room" and, unofficially, as the "room of horrors". It has shelves of large bottles containing grotesque foetuses. During its invasion of Vietnam, the United States sprayed a defoliant herbicide on vegetation and villages to deny "cover to the enemy". This was Agent Orange, which contained dioxin, poisons of such power that they cause foetal death, miscarriage, chromosomal damage and cancer.

In 1970, a US Senate report revealed that "the US has dumped [on South Vietnam] a quantity of toxic chemical amounting to six pounds per head of population, including woman and children". The code-name for this weapon of mass destruction, Operation Hades, was changed to the friendlier Operation Ranch Hand. Today, an estimated 4.8 million victims of Agent Orange are children

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Stephen Lendman

On June 22, Reuters headlined "Turkish jet downed by Syria air defenses: report," saying:

According to Lebanon's Al-Manar television, "Syrian air defenses shot down a Turkish military aircraft, quoting Syrian security sources."

Reportedly it was an F-4 Phantom fighter bomber. First introduced in 1960, McDonnell Aircraft produced it. It was used extensively during the Vietnam war. More advanced aircraft replaced it long ago. A pilot and navigator were on board. Turkey regularly patrols airspace close to Syria's border.

Al-Manar headlined "Crisis Meeting in Turkey after Losing Contact with Military Jet near Syria," saying:

Turkey's military said it "lost radio contact with one of its aircraft on the Mediterranean near neighboring Syria." At 7:30 GMT, the plane left Malatya airbase. At 8:58GMT, communication was lost "in the southwest of the Hatay province bordering Syria...."

Search and rescue efforts began. It's unconfirmed officially if the plane crashed or was shot down. Its pilot and navigator were reported unharmed. "Malatya governor Ulvi Saran told the Anatolia news agency that it was a F-4 plane with two pilots onboard...." In response to the incident, AFP said Turkey convened a crisis meeting.

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Bill Van Auken

Some of Syria’s “rebels” sit by the side of a street in Qaboun dis-
trict, Damascus June 11, 2012. (Photo: Stringer / Reuters)

CIA agents have been deployed to Turkey to organize the arming of the so-called rebels in Syria seeking the overthrow of the government of President Bashar al-Assad, the New York Times reported Thursday.

The report, citing information provided by senior US officials as well as Arab intelligence officers, states that the CIA operatives are directing a massive smuggling operation through which “automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and some antitank weapons, are being funneled mostly across the Turkish border by way of a shadowy network of intermediaries, including the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, and paid for by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.”

The day before the publication of the Times piece, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland reiterated the Obama administration’s public line. “We have repeatedly said that we are not in the business of arming in Syria.” She went on to describe Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar al-Jaafari as “deluded” for charging that major foreign powers were backing “armed terrorist groups” in his country and trying to escalate Syria’s crisis into an “explosion” in order to bring about “regime change.”

The Times article only confirms earlier press reports and provides further detail in exposing the same, barely covert, operation directed at fomenting and arming a sectarian civil war in Syria.

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WL Central

Julian Assange interview on ABC Radio National Breakfast, 21 June 2012. This is his first interview conducted since he applied for political asylum in Ecuador. At the time of this interview, Mr Assange had been at the Ecuadorian Embassy for three days. Full Audio is avialable at the ABC Radio website.

Fran Kelly: And let's head straight to Britain where Julian Assange is about to spend his third night holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, as he awaits a decision on his bid for political asylum. The 40 year old Australian walked into the Embassy on Tuesday in a dramatic bid to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over sexual assault allegations. Even if he's granted asylum in Ecuador, British police say they will arrest him as soon as he steps foot outside the embassy, accusing him of being in breach of his bail conditions. Julian Assange joins us now live from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Julian, welcome back to RN Breakfast.

Julian Assange: G'day, Fran. Good to be with you.

Fran Kelly: Julian Assange, why did you walk into the Ecuadorian Embassy?

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Stephen Lendman

CIA fighters/Free Syrian Army squatting in a home in Aleppo.

On June 21, The New York Times headlined "CIA Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition," saying, operating covertly from southern Turkey,

CIA operatives are "decid(ing) which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government, according to American officials and Arab intelligence officers." Weapons supplied include "automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition, (and) antitank weapons...." They're smuggled across Turkey's border through "a shadowy network of intermediaries...."

They're also entering through Lebanon. Muslim Brotherhood officials are involved. So are Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, other Gulf States, Jordan and Israel. Obama denies what other US officials confirm. A knowledgeable unnamed Arab intelligence operative said:

"CIA officers are there and they are trying to make new sources and recruit people" to help topple Assad.

Turkish army vehicles are used to transport weapons and munitions to border areas. From there they're smuggled into Syria. Turkish officials deny what confirmed evidence shows they're doing. The New York Times article failed to explain what's been ongoing since violence erupted early last year.

Throughout the conflict, NATO's been waging covert war. Washington directs everything. Israel, France and Britain are directly involved. So are Gulf States, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon's March 14 alliance, and other Arab League countries.

In January 2012, British media confirmed that MI6 and CIA operatives were training Syrian insurgents. US, British, French, and Qatari special forces are involved. They're recruiting, funding, equipping, arming, training, and directing insurgents. They're choosing targets. They're responsible for recent massacres and terrorist bomb attacks.

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Philip Giraldi

The most recent issue of the National Counter Terrorism Center’s annual Report on Terrorism [.pdf] came out last week, covering the year 2011. I would like to say that it is well worth a read, but actually it is quite tedious. For those who are interested, it is essentially a statistical and analytical breakdown of the terrorism phenomenon derived from the U.S. government–maintained Worldwide Incidents Tracking System, or WITS, which is based on publicly available open-source material reporting alleged terrorist activity around the globe. Most often the analysis is bare bones and avoids political coloration, not, for example, going deeply into the motives of the various terrorist groups but instead providing information in a pie chart and chronological fashion. This year’s report is 33 pages long.

The United States is engaged in what most Americans still refer to as a global war on terror or, in shorthand form, a war on terror. The Obama administration avoids the expression because it is a legacy of the Bush years and because it uses the expression “war,” so it refers to “overseas contingency operations,” which has a nicer sound and does not appear to be so preemptive or premeditated. It also fudges the reality of what is taking place by pretending that the process is reactive, which it is not. The unrelenting expansion of U.S. military intervention is in response to many diverse overseas developments, most of which are not genuine threats. This was recently demonstrated by the White House decision to extend the U.S. terrorism fight to the entire continent of Africa.

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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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Stephen Lendman

Since reelected in March, Putin and Obama met for the first time on Monday at the Los Cabos, Mexico G20 meeting. Discussions focused on major geopolitical and economic issues. Differences on Syria remain unresolved.

At a joint press conference, Putin said:

"We held talks about international problems including the Syrian crisis." "(W)e will continue our contacts on all issues."

Obama responded:

"We have agreed on the necessity of reaching a halt for violence in Syria and the need for running a political process to avoid a civil war."

A lengthy White House-released joint statement covered many issues. On Syria, it said:

"We agree to cooperate bilaterally and multilaterally to solve regional conflicts."

"In order to stop the bloodshed in Syria, we call for an immediate cessation of all violence and express full support for the efforts of UN/League of Arab States Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan, including moving forward on political transition to a democratic, pluralistic political system that would be implemented by the Syrians themselves in the framework of Syria's sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity."

"We are united in the belief that the Syrian people should have the opportunity to independently and democratically choose their own future."

Additional language called for achieving a comprehensive Middle East peace. Putin and other leaders want nothing less. Obama itches for more war. Talking peace and stoking conflicts reveal America's transparent hypocrisy.

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Wayne Madsen

The Fourth Estate has never been under as much pressure in the United States as it has been under the Obama administration. On the 40th anniversary of the Watergate scandal that brought down the Nixon administration, thanks to a vigorous and independent U.S. press, many journalists have openly wondered how today’s corporate-controlled and increasingly-beleaguered independent media would have handled the Watergate affair. Many journalists have rightly concluded that today’s press would have given Nixon and his administration a free pass and there would have been no investigation, impeachment, or presidential resignation.

Across the United States journalists are facing pressures from the government and corporations that would have been unheard of forty years ago. After leaks from unnamed government sources about the decision-making process in carrying out targeted assassinations using drones and details of the Stuxnet and Flame computer malware and the use of Flame in spying on Iranian computers in the CIA’s Operation Olympic Games, Attorney General Eric Holder has opened a criminal investigation into the leaks. Journalists are not immune to being hauled before federal grand juries by Justice Department prosecutors to reveal their sources under oath.

New York Times reporter Jim Risen is facing the government’s appeal of an earlier federal court decision to quash his subpoena to reveal his source or sources. In his book, State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration,” Risen revealed the CIA’s Operation Merlin, a program to sabotage components of Iran’s nuclear power program. The Holder Justice Department, acting to protect the Bush administration program, wants Risen to testify on the guilt of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling as the source for the information. Sterling has been indicted by a grand jury under the arcane 1917 Espionage Act, which is being used to prosecute other leakers of alleged classified information and as a weapon to keep other potential government whistleblowers silent.

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Stephen Lendman

"It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." – Joseph Stalin

At age 25, Orson Welles co-wrote, produced, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane. It looks critically at the life and times of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.

Welles played the lead character, Charles Foster Kane. The film retains its force today. After losing a gubernatorial election, his New York Inquirer headlined: "Fraud at Polls!"

It reflects real life electoral politics. It repeats under democratic and authoritarian regimes. Exceptions prove the rule. The memorable line from Gilbert & Sullivan's HMS Pinafore explains, saying:

"Things are seldom as they seem. Skim milk masquerades as cream."

Media scoundrel misinformation features it. Fiction substitutes for truth and full disclosure. Explanations most needed are suppressed.

Over the weekend, Greece held second round parliamentary elections. Egypt held a presidential runoff. Results of both are suspect. More on Egypt below.

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John V. Walsh

There is something more than a little creepy about Nicholas Kristof’s incessant interest in prostitutes — only out of concern for their well-being, of course — as he travels across the planet. But in his most recent trek across Iran, he abandons his obsession for a bit in order to look at the U.S. sanctions directed at the beleaguered country, which has suffered at the hands of the U.S. since the 1953 CIA overthrow of the democratically elected government of Mohammed Mossadegh, who had the effrontery to claim Iran’s oil wealth for Iran.

But “Pinched and Griping in Iran,” the title of Kristof’s column, at least is forthright about the aim and effects of sanctions. We often hear that sanctions, whether aimed at Iraq as in the 1990s or at Syria and Iran today, are “targeted.” They will only affect the powerful in the targeted country, or so we are told. At times the War Party’s line crumbles, as with Madeline Albright’s infamous judgment that the death of 500,000 children at the hands of Bill Clinton’s sanctions was “a price worth paying.” But is such suffering the intent of the sanctions or “merely” accidental collateral murder?

Here Kristof is refreshingly, albeit chillingly, honest in his appraisal. Do sanctions only affect the powerful? Kristof answers: “Yet one lesson from my 1,700-mile drive around the country [Iran] is that, largely because of Western sanctions, factories are closing, workers are losing their jobs, trade is faltering, and prices are surging. This is devastating to the average Iranian’s pocketbook — and pride.” But is that the intent? The well-connected pundit proclaims: “To be blunt, sanctions are succeeding as intended: They are inflicting prodigious economic pain on Iranians and are generating discontent.” Or more pointedly, from a member of a demographic that Kristof is always eager to interview: “’The economy is breaking people’s backs,’ a young woman told me in western Iran.”

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