Bill Van Auken

Iraq War veteran Tomas Young, currently under hospice care at his home in Kansas City, Missouri, has written a scathing “last letter,” published at Truthdig.com, addressed to former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Young, the subject of the 2007 documentary film Body of War , explains that he is writing his letter

“on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end.”

Young goes on:

“I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.”

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Stephen Lendman

Longstanding US/Israeli ties remain firm. Obama's visit reinforces them. It does more. It assures continued support. It endorses hardline extremism. It affirms occupation harshness. It lets Israel do what it pleases. America's special relationship does more harm than good. It's wrongheaded. Israel is more strategic liability than asset. So are other regional allies.

Flynt and Hillary Leverett are former insiders. Their views matter. Their book titled "Going to Iran" discusses why Washington "must come to terms with the Islamic Republic."

It shows no signs of doing so. It's decades overdue. An entirely new approach is needed, they argue. America's regional position is disastrous. It's delusional.

[After] "failed wars-cum-occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan; a war on terror that has turned Muslim societies ever more firmly against U.S. policy; and de facto support for open-ended Israeli occupation of Arab populations, America’s (regional) position is in free fall."

Attacking Iran is madness, they argue. Current strategy suggests it's likely. Engaging Tehran is essential. Candidate Obama promised to do so. Saying his efforts failed doesn't wash. He never tried. It's high time he did. He refuses to acknowledge Iran's peaceful nuclear program. Harsh sanctions tell Iranians America's a strategic enemy.

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Stephen Lendman

Palestinian activists hold up a shoe during a protest Monday
against the upcoming visit of U.S. President Barack Obama
to the West Bank city of Bethlehem. (M. Shaer/AFP/Getty)

His visit bodes ill, not good. He left late Tuesday night. On March 20, he arrived around noon Israeli time. Secretary of State John Kerry came earlier. Scores of officials, aides and security personnel accompanied him and Obama.

Around 15,000 Israeli police provide security. So do US secret service and its Israeli counterpart. Trips like this reflect more show than substance. They cost millions of dollars. Taxpayers cover the expense. They gain nothing from doing so.

Obama's entire visit is scripted. His entourage is extensive. His motorcade includes 60 vehicles. Ambulances, fire-fighting trucks and various security vehicles are involved. Contingency plans are readied just in case. When Obama travels by car, all streets along his route are closed and sealed. Normal life is disrupted. During his brief Ramallah visit, PA security will protect him.

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Jordan Shilton & Chris Marsden

The vote by Cyprus’s parliament Tuesday evening to reject the terms of the European Union (EU) bailout agreed last Saturday has deepened a crisis which threatens to spread across Europe, posing the risk of national bankruptcy.

Thirty-six parliamentarians voted against the deal, while 19 abstained and none voted in favour. The initial bailout plan would have charged investors with deposits in Cypriot bank accounts a tax of 9.9 percent for those with account balances of more than €100,000, and 6.75 per cent for those with balances between €25,000 and 100,000. This would have raised €5.8 billion to support the proposed €10-billion-euro EU bailout for Cyprus’ banks.

With thousands gathered outside parliament to protest, a last-minute adjustment to exempt those with less than €20,000 from the levy had no impact.

President Nikos Anastasiades called an emergency meeting of all political parties to work on a “Plan B.” But a proposed alternative it drew up yesterday was rejected by the troika—the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The total collapse of Cyprus’s financial system is being avoided only by the continued closure of the banks, which will now be kept shut until next Tuesday. The stock market also announced on Tuesday it would close for two days, amid fears that investors would withdraw large quantities of capital.

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Bill Van Auken

Starting a two-day visit to Israel on Wednesday, US President Barack Obama issued bellicose threats against both Syria and Iran. The visit, which plainly has the character of a US-Israeli war council, makes clear that ten years after the US invasion of Iraq, US imperialism is preparing even greater crimes in the Middle East.

The Democratic president threatened the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad that it would “be held accountable for the use of chemical weapons or their transfer to terrorists,” adding that if evidence showed that such a weapon had been used it would be a “game-changer.”

On Iran, Obama repeated his vow “to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon” and that “all options are on the table,” while recognizing Israel’s “right” to take unilateral action against Iran. There “is not a lot of daylight” between the US and Israel on Iran, he said.

Obama’s remarks came one day after the tenth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. No speeches or ceremonies were organized by the Obama administration or the US Congress Tuesday to mark the onset of a war to which 1.5 million Americans were sent, and where nearly 4,500 died and hundreds of thousands suffered either physical or psychological wounds.

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Jeff Lincoln

A report released in early February by the Open Society Justice Initiative titled “Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition” establishes that the Central Intelligence Agency, acting under the direction of the highest levels of the US government, has utilized a global network of secret prisons, foreign intelligence agents, and interrogation and torture centers to send detainees to without any legal protections.

This arrangement is worldwide and includes the involvement of at least 54 different countries touching almost every continent.

There is enormous diversity among the countries involved. They include Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt, Pakistan, Syria and Jordan, which carried out the torture on suspects that the CIA rendered to them. Poland, Lithuania, Romania and Thailand hosted secret prisons operated by the CIA where detainees could be held clandestinely and have interrogations or torture conducted directly by American intelligence operatives.

European nations such as Macedonia, Georgia, and Sweden detained and delivered suspects to the CIA to be tortured. Larger countries such as Britain or Germany conducted some of the interrogations themselves while smaller countries such as Iceland, Denmark, Belgium, or Greece provided intelligence, logistical support, use of airspace, etc.

On the whole, the report stands as an indictment against all of Washington’s allies and client states in its self-proclaimed “war on terror.”

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Bill Van Auken

The top US commander in Europe told a Senate hearing Tuesday that the US military and NATO are drawing up plans for direct military intervention in Syria.

Adm. James Stavridis, head of the Pentagon’s European Command, speaking at a hearing by the Senate Armed Service Committee, said that the US military is “looking at a variety of options” and is “prepared if called upon to be engaged.”

Declaring that there was “no end in sight to a vicious civil war,” Stavridis told the panel that “the option of assisting the opposition forces in Syria in ways that would break the deadlock are being actively explored by NATO members,” the Washington Post reported.

The admiral added that US and NATO discussions have included providing “lethal support” to the anti-government militias and using direct military force to impose “no-fly zones” in Syria and enforce “arms embargoes” against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Asked by committee chairman Senator Carl Levin (Democrat, Michigan) whether the discussions included “going after Syria’s air defenses,” Stavridis answered “Yes,” to which Levin replied, “Good.”

The exchange on Capitol Hill mirrored other developments signaling an escalation of the intervention by the Western powers, utilizing a bitter sectarian civil war[*] to bring about regime change in Syria.

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Stephen Lendman

Steve Lendman: Grand Theft Cyprus: Part II (Part I)

Cyprus is tiny. Its population numbers about a million. Its GDP is miniscule by Western standards. It's 0.2% of Europe's economy. It's entrapped under Eurozone straightjacket rules. They impose financial tyranny. Dissimilar countries surrender monetary and fiscal control. Doing so abandons effective ways to combat recessions.

They can't devalue their currencies to make exports more competitive. They can't print money freely. They can't spend, spend, spend. Euro policy expert Bernard Connolly is considered the foremost European economic, monetary, and political integration expert. In his 1995 book titled, "The Rotten Heart of Europe: The Dirty War for Europe's Money" he explained and said the euro system a harebrained idea. It's doomed to fail.

Before the euro's 1998 introduction, he said one or more of Europe's weakest countries would face rising budget deficits, troubled economies, and a "downward spiral from which there is no escape unaided." "When that happens, the country concerned will be faced with a risk of sovereign default."

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Bill Van Auken & David North

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. Ten years ago, the world watched the “shock and awe” bombing campaign light up the nighttime sky of Baghdad with billowing clouds of flame and smoke.

This campaign and the bloody ten years of occupation that followed had a devastating impact on what was once among the most advanced societies in the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were killed and millions were made homeless.

The American military’s conduct of the war produced crimes of staggering dimensions. This included the turning of Fallujah, a city of 350,000 people, into a free-fire zone, the bombarding of its occupants with white phosphorus shells, banned by international law, and the summary execution of wounded prisoners. Ten years later, the rates of child cancer and birth defects in Fallujah are similar to those in Hiroshima following the US atomic bombing.

The leaking of stomach-turning photographs from Abu Ghraib lifted the veil on the barbaric character of the war, which included the systematic use of torture, death squads and sectarian massacres to terrorize the Iraqi population into submission.

People in Iraq continue to die from the sectarian violence unleashed by the war as well as from the destruction of infrastructure that has deprived them of clean water, health care and other essentials of life. One million children under the age of 18 have lost one or both parents, and hundreds of thousands suffer from grievous wounds.

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Stephen Lendman

Israel's Fascist Government [Part I]

On March 18, Israel's new government was sworn in. Doing so hardened fascist rule. A previous article explained. Israelis elected their most extremist government ever. It's hugely over-the-top. It's militantly hardline, racist and unscrupulous. It menaces the region. It supports state-sponsored terrorism, belligerence, neoliberal harshness, and unlimited settlement expansions.

Troika partners rule. Netanyahu remains prime minister. He's an embarrassment to democratic governance. He spurns rule of law principles. He deplores peace. Expect more conflict on his watch.

Yair Lapid emerged a surprise partner. He's more showman than politician. He's more con man than legitimate. He's more demagogue than democrat. He's amateurish, shallow and disingenuous. He's more image and mirage than real. He's a ne-er-do-well wannabe. He's ignorant, callous, uncaring and racist. He's a media personality turned politician.

Naftali Bennett represents settler interests. He's the son of American immigrants. He's one of Israel's super-rich. He heads Habayit Yayehudi. It's Israel's third most powerful party. Earlier he led Israel's Yesha Council. It's a hardline umbrella group. It represents settler interests. It replaced Gush Emunim (Block of the Faithful). It replicates its extremism. It's militantly hardline. It's ideologically over-the-top. It's committed to unlimited settlement expansions. It wants Palestinians displaced. It wants Greater Israel exclusively Jewish. Expanding settlements reflects core Israeli policy. Hardline ministers are committed to do so.

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Michael Albert

John Pilger Interviewed by Michael Albert

Michael Albert: 1. As a person very well known for both video work and writing work - I wonder if you could tell us how you got started in each, so people know a bit more about your history.

John Pilger: My journalism began in Australia when I started a newspaper at Sydney High School. It was called 'The Messenger' and I was 12 years old. Or perhaps it began a year or two earlier when I would get up before sunrise to deliver newspapers, only to be chastised by my employer for wasting his time reading them. Journalism certainly helped bring the world to me as I grew up; the antipodes are ruled by a tyranny of distance; I tried to imagine the rest of humanity so far away.

I grew up in Sydney, in what was then quite a poor industrial city, in a family that was considered "political": that is, we were "on the side of the underdog", as my mother would say. Australia was a society divided deeply by class, religion and silence, as Mark Twain recognised on one his visits. He described our colonial history as "like the most beautiful of lies". The indigenous people, the oldest continuous culture on earth, about whom almost no one spoke, did not exist; the likeness with South Africa was too disturbing.

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Matthew J. Nasuti

U.S. Service Members Killed in Afghan Suicide Bomb Attack:
US soliders, right, carry a body from the site of a suicide car
bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Ahmad Jamshid/AP Photo)

Victory usually goes to the side with the highest dedication. Unfortunately for NATO, that side is the Taliban and al-Qaeda. If one dispenses with all the propaganda, the use of suicide attackers, whether they be bombers or insider turncoats, has objectively been a stunning success. The reality is that an opponent who is willing to die for his or her cause has a significant tactical advantage over a foreign army consisting of troops whose main priority is to survive their war zone tours.

NATO seems befuddled not only by its inability to counter the suicide attacker, but by its failure or refusal to even comprehend its foe. As a result NATO spokespersons revert back to a tired and discredited theme that suicide attackers are uneducated religious fanatics brainwashed in Madrassa schools in Pakistan by unscrupulous mullahs. The truth is that most suicide attackers are educated and apparently consider themselves dedicated patriots combating a foreign invader with the only weapon they have, which is themselves.

Two weeks ago it was announced that Tahir Ashrafi, the leader of the Pakistan Ulema (religious) Council, had formally endorsed the use of suicide bombers against American and NATO forces. He adopted the Taliban saying that, “suicide bombers are the atomic weapons of Muslims.” This ruling emphasizes that the suicide attackers represent mainstream Islam. It is the same with Christianity. In the Book of Judges 16:30, Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines” and he proceeded to pull down a Philistine temple on himself and on the Philistine rulers. Samson is a hero of the Bible.

One of the difficulties that these attackers present to the West is that the most dedicated and courageous fighters seem to be on the other side. Just as with the Vietnam War, the enemy is dedicated to victory at all cost, while Afghan security forces seem less so.

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Stephen Lendman

High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay (left) and
President of the Human Rights Council Remigiusz A. Henczel
at the High-Level Segment of the Council. (UN Photo/Martin)

In 1945, the UN was established:

• "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war;
• reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights;
• (support) equal rights of men and women....of nations large and small;
• establish conditions under which justice....can be maintained;
• promote social progress;
• practice tolerance and live in peace; and
• (promote) economic and social advancement of all peoples."

It failed on all counts. It's largely a US imperial tool. It's been so from inception. With few exceptions, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) marches in lockstep with Washington. It does so shamelessly. Poland's Remigiusz Henczel serves as president. America's waging hot war on Syria. It does so politically, economically and other ways against Iran. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon aides and abets Washington's agenda. So does the Human Rights Council. Former Maldivian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Shaheed, serves as Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran. He does so dishonorably. He takes State Department blood money.

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Kourosh Ziabari

Interview* with public policy scholar Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

Kourosh Ziabari – Sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States and its allies are “immoral and illegal – and cowardly”, public policy scholar and researcher Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich says.

Sepahpour-Ulrich, who has a Master’s in Public Diplomacy from USC Annenberg for Communication, made the remarks during an exclusive interview with the Tehran Times this week.

“I believe that there should be no mistake about the reality that sanctions are warfare without the military involvement,” she added.

Sepahpour-Ulrich is an independent researcher and writer with a focus on U.S. foreign policy. Her articles have been published by several online publications.

Following is the text of Sepahpour-Ulrich’s interview with the Tehran Times.

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Bill Van Auken

In this 1973 photo released by the El Salvador School, Priest Jorge Mario Bergoglio, left, and priest Pedro Arupe give a Mass at the church in the El Salvador school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Bergoglio was elected pope on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, making him the first pope ever from the Americas. Bergoglio, who was born in 1936, chose the name Pope Francis.

For over a week, the media has subjected the public to a tidal wave of euphoric banality on the Roman Catholic Church’s selection of a new pope.

This non-stop celebration of the dogma and ritual of an institution that for centuries has been identified with oppression and backwardness is stamped with a deeply undemocratic character. It is reflective of the rightward turn of the entire political establishment and its repudiation of the principles enshrined in the US Constitution, including the wall of separation between church and state.

What a far cry from the political ideals that animated those who drafted that document. It was Thomas Jefferson’s well-founded opinion that “In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.”

Jefferson’s view—and the reactionary character of the media’s sycophantic coverage—finds no more powerful conformation than in the identity of the new pope, officially celebrated as a paragon of “humility” and “renewal.”

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Joseph Kishore

Shuttered homes and businesses in downtown Detroit, Michigan.
More than 100 American cities could go bust next year as the debt
crisis that has taken down banks and countries threatens next to
spark a municipal meltdown (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

With the appointment of an emergency manager on Thursday, Detroit became the largest city in US history to be taken over by the state government. The new manager, bankruptcy lawyer Kevin Orr, will have vast powers and one essential task: to carry out a brutal assault on the jobs and living conditions of the working class.

What is taking place in Detroit has national and international significance. The Financial Times of London cited one person involved in the discussions on the imposition of a financial manager as saying, “This will be the best case study of what it means to restructure a city.” In an editorial, the newspaper called for “radical—and unpopular—action” to address Detroit’s financial woes, a position shared by virtually every mass circulation newspaper in the US.

The “restructuring” of Detroit is a euphemism for a slash and burn policy of destroying city jobs, cutting wages and pensions, gutting social services from sanitation and firefighting to health care and education, and handing over city assets to private bankers and speculators. The very social forces responsible for the city’s present state are utilizing the crisis of their own making to step up their plundering of public resources and further redistribute the wealth from the bottom to the top. Exhibiting the ruthlessness that is a hallmark of American capitalism, the ruling class, in the pursuit of its program of social counterrevolution, is dispensing with the trappings of democracy and imposing a bankers’ dictatorship over the city.

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Stephen Lendman

Israel's Fascist Government: Part II

On January 22, Israelis voted. Results hardened fascist rule. Dominant right-wing parties control 102 of 120 Knesset seats.

Israelis have themselves to blame. They elected their most extremist government in history. Belligerence, state-sponsored terrorism, militarized occupation, racist persecution, settlement expansions, and neoliberal harshness reflect official policy. No party won a majority. Weeks of negotiations followed. Expect coalition partners to be announced shortly.

Netanyahu remains Prime Minister. He'll serve as Foreign Minister. He'll do so pending the outcome of Avigdor Lieberman's trial. He's charged with fraud and breach of trust.

Netanyahu's a world class thug. He spurns rule of law principles. He abhors democratic values. He prioritizes stealing all valued Palestinian land. He deplores peace. He calls pursuing it a waste of time. He presides over 22 ministers. Eight deputy ones join them. They represent Israel's smallest government in decades.

Coalition partners include Netanyahu's Likud/Yisrael Beteinu, Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid, and Naftali Bennett's Habayit Yayehudi. Tzipi Livni's Hatnuah had token participation. Together they won 67 of 120 Knesset seats. They reflect hardline extremism. They're ideologically over the top. They represent what demands condemnation.

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John Pilger

What is modern propaganda? For many, it is the lies of a totalitarian state. In the 1970s, I met Leni Riefenstahl and asked her about her epic films that glorified the Nazis. Using revolutionary camera and lighting techniques, she produced a documentary form that mesmerized Germans; her 'Triumph of the Will' cast Hitler's spell.

She told me that the "messages" of her films were dependent not on "orders from above," but on the "submissive void" of the German public. Did that include the liberal, educated bourgeoisie? "Everyone," she said.

Today, we prefer to believe that there is no submissive void. "Choice" is ubiquitous. Phones are "platforms" that launch every half-thought. There is Google from outer space if you need it. Caressed like rosary beads, the precious devices are borne heads-down, relentlessly monitored and prioritised. Their dominant theme is the self. Me. My needs. Riefenstahl's submissive void is today's digital slavery.

Edward Said described this wired state in 'Culture and Imperialism' as taking imperialism where navies could never reach. It is the ultimate means of social control because it is voluntary, addictive and shrouded in illusions of personal freedom.

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Michel Chossudovsky

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen received Israel’s president Shimon Peres at NATO headquarters in Brussels on March 7.

The order of the day: to enhance military cooperation between Israel and the Atlantic Alliance focusing on issues of counter-terrorism.

“Israel will be happy to share the knowledge it has gained and its technological abilities with NATO. Israel has experience in contending with complex situations, and we must strengthen the cooperation so we can fight global terror together and assist NATO with the complex threats it faces including in Afghanistan.“

Israel is already involved in covert operations and non-conventional warfare in liaison with the US and NATO.

This agreement is of particular significance because it deepens the Israel-NATO relationship beyond the so-called “Mediterranean Dialogue”. The joint statement points to an Israel NATO partnership “in the fight against terror and the search for peace… in the Middle East and the world”.

Israel offered to assist NATO in counter-terrorism operations directed against Hezbollah and Iran. What this suggests is the participation of Israel in active theater warfare alongside NATO –i.e. as a de facto member of the Atlantic Alliance. In other words, Israel would be directly involved were US-NATO to launch an outright military operation against Syria, Lebanon or Iran.

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Wayne Madsen

The Guardian newspaper’s self-proclaimed Venezuela expert Rory Carroll has glibly categorized serious charges that Venezuela’s late President Hugo Chávez Frías was assassinated by a United States-produced bio-weapon as being in the same league with «conspiracy theorists who wonder about aliens at Roswell and NASA faking the moon landings». A number of Venezuelan and international officials believe a hostile party covertly introduced an aggressive form of cancer into the 58-year old president.

Carroll also wrote that Chávez, himself, believed that the cancers that befell former leftist leaders of Latin America, including Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, diagnosed with colon cancer and Brazilian President Ignacio Lula da Silva, treated for throat cancer, were part of a CIA plot directed against left-wing leaders. Curiously, Carroll suggests that Uruguay’s former leftist president, Tabare Vazquez, also recovered from cancer. In fact, Vazquez never had cancer. Furthermore, he is a renowned oncologist trained in France. It was Paraguay’s former president, Fernando Lugo who was ousted in a 2012 CIA-backed right-wing coup, who was diagnosed with lymphoma, cancer of the immune system. Carroll simply proclaims that because all three ex-leaders recovered from cancer, there was nothing to the U.S. cancer assassination weapon story.

Carroll conveniently omitted the cancers that have struck other Latin American leaders, including Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, afflicted with thyroid cancer, and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, struck with lymphoma. After beginning peace talks with the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia’s conservative president Juan Manuel Santos was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

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