William Blum

There are more than 1,400 daily newspapers in the United States. Can you name a single paper, or a single TV network, that was unequivocally opposed to the American wars carried out against Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Panama, Grenada, and Vietnam? Or even opposed to any two of these wars? How about one? (I've been asking this question for years and so far I've gotten only one answer — Someone told me that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer had unequivocally opposed the invasion of Iraq. Can anyone verify that or name another case?)

In 1968, six years into the Vietnam war, the Boston Globe surveyed the editorial positions of 39 leading US papers concerning the war and found that "none advocated a pull-out".[1]

Now, can you name an American daily newspaper or TV network that more or less gives any support to any US government ODE (Officially Designated Enemy)? Like Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Fidel or Raul Castro of Cuba, Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Rafael Correa of Ecuador (even before the current Assange matter), or Evo Morales of Bolivia? I mean that presents the ODE's point of view in a reasonably fair manner most of the time? Or any ODE of the recent past like Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, Moammar Gaddafi of Libya, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, or Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti?

More »

Stephen Lendman

Make no mistake. America is directly or indirectly responsible for most world conflicts. Across North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, it plays the lead role.

Afghanistan has been occupied for nearly 11 years. US air and ground attacks murder civilians daily. Pre-2003 Iraq no longer exists. America destroyed the cradle of civilization. It's complicit in daily Israeli state terror against Palestinian civilians. It ravaged and murdered tens of thousands of Libyans. It's using death squad invaders against Syrians. Civilian men, women and children are prime targets. Everyone supporting peace and stability is vulnerable.

It's not enough. Plans call for full-scale war. Washington fights dirty. Scorched earth belligerence is policy. Target states aren't just attacked. They're willfully, maliciously, and lawlessly destroyed. People are massacred in cold blood. Propagandists call it humanitarian intervention. War is peace. Orwell warned us long ago. Only imperial dominance matters. Hegemons accept nothing less. Human lives are of no consequence. It's been that way since America's beginning. It's ongoing today with WMD ease.

Plans were readied months ago for ground and air attacks on Syria. Proxy war is prelude to full-scale conflict. Libya 2.0 looms. Media propaganda plays the lead role. Public opinion is being massaged, softened, and manipulated to accept more bloodshed. It never ends. One war segues to another. After Syria comes Iran. How many more millions will die? How much more human suffering is enough? How much are media scoundrels paid to support what they should condemn?

People have a right to know. They pay for it multiple ways. Their tax dollars go for killing and mass destruction, not vital domestic services. They're increasingly on their own to fund America's war machine. Police state harshness targets dissenters. Bipartisan complicity threw them under the bus long ago. Imagine what's coming post-election. Both parties are committed to endless wars without mercy. Revolutionary resistance is the only way to stop them. Hardly a sign of it exists.

Drumbeat warmongering drowns out activists needing much greater support to matter. Western media managed news misreports on nations Washington targets. Their hands are as blood drenched as imperial planners. They're virtual subcontractors. They're complicit in mass murder and destruction. They risk letting the entire Middle East explode. They ignore fundamental international law principles. They support foreign wars and ones at home against freedom. They're for wealth and power interests only. Destroying Syria and Iran get top billing.

More »

Gulf Center for Human Rights

The BCHR and GCHR condemn in the strongest terms the sentence passed today against the detained human rights defender Nabeel Rajab by the Bahraini government on charges related to protesting. Rajab was sentenced to a total of three years imprisonment in three cases, to be immediately carried out.

Nabeel Rajab is the president of the BCHR, the director of the Gulf Center for Human rights, the vice president of FIDH, and on the advisory board for the MENA section in Human Rights Watch. He is a renowned human rights defender, and in 2011 he was awarded with the Ion Ratiu Democracy Award because he "has worked tirelessly and at considerable personal peril to advance the cause of democratic freedoms and the civil rights of Bahraini citizens". The GCHR and BCHR believe that the only reason for targeting Rajab is to prevent him from continuing his legitimate and peaceful human rights work.

He is already serving a 3 months imprisonment sentence on charges of “libeling the citizens of the town of Muharraq over twitter”, another case of an ongoing campaign of judicial harassment against Rajab. He is in prison since 9 July 2012 for this charge. (See GCHR and BCHR appeal dated 9 July 2012 for further information: "Bahrain: Leading human rights defender Nabeel Rajab imprisoned for three months over twitter".

More »