Chris Marsden

"Inspection"...PM David Cameron checks out Trident nuclear sub.

Hitler’s propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, who knew a great deal about such techniques himself, once remarked,

“The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.”

Prime Minister David Cameron is intent on continuing such practices. He chose an April 4 visit to Scotland to claim that it is a “fact” that North Korea has the technology to attack both the United States and the United Kingdom with a nuclear missile.

“How concerned am I about North Korea? Very concerned, it has extremely dangerous technologies in terms of nuclear and its weapons… The fact is, as I wrote in a newspaper article this morning, North Korea does now have missile technology that is able to reach, as they put it, the whole of the United States and if they’re able to reach the whole of the United States they can reach Europe too. They can reach us too, so that is a real concern.”

The claim is a flat-out lie, as many authoritative voices have pointed out. James Hardy, Asia Pacific Editor of Jane’s Defence Weekly, commented,

“From what we know of its existing inventory, North Korea has short and medium range missiles that could complicate a situation on the Korean Peninsula (and perhaps reach Japan), but we have not seen any evidence that it has long-range missiles that could strike the continental US, Guam or Hawaii.”

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Nahida Izzat, Exiled Palestinian

Muna and Muhammed are 12-year-old twins living in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem. Settlers have taken over the front of
their home, but the Palestinian family continue to live in the rest of the house.

Like most dispossessed Palestinians, revolutionary Arabs, vilified Muslims, and decent human beings, I believe:

● No decent human-being would demand to live on STOLEN land and STOLEN homes and still claim to have a fiber of morality.

● No decent human-being could claim that the perpetrator should have the same rights as the victim while claiming to be a humanist.

● Palestinians are under no obligation to hold back their march for freedom, to curtail their aims or to smother their rights for the sake of accommodating and not offending their Jewish supporters.

● Palestinians are always grateful and appreciative of the hard work and dedication of all their supporters whomever they are, however, Palestinians have NO obligation to adopt the aims and objectives of the anti-zionist Jewish supporters instead of their own.

● Dismissing the Palestinian voice as radical, reactionary, intolerant, or unreasonable, and requiring instead the Jewish-anti-zionist stamp of approval to have legitimacy to speak for Palestine, is preposterous and contradicts basic concepts of human rights and does not do justice to Palestinians.

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Bill Van Auken

Israel announced that it has placed its military on “high alert” Thursday as popular anger erupted following the deaths of a prominent Palestinian prisoner and two young protesters in the occupied West Bank.

Thousands joined funeral processions Thursday for Maysara Abuhamdia, a 64-year-old Palestine Liberation Organization veteran who died Tuesday in Israeli custody, and for two teenage cousins, Amer Nassar, 17, and Naki Belbisi, 18, who were shot down Wednesday night by Israeli troops using live ammunition against protests over Abuhamdia’s death.

According to the account of the Israeli military, its troops fired on the youth and two others after they threw a Molotov cocktail at a West Bank checkpoint in the town of Tulkarem. They responded with gunfire, killing one, and then chased after the three who fled, killing another and wounding one more.

Over a dozen Palestinian protesters have been killed by the Israel Defense Force since the year began.

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Stephen Lendman

Kim Jong Un waves at military officers after inspecting the
Wolnae Islet Defense Detachment, North Korea, near the
western sea border with South Korea. (AP/nydailynews.com)

For decades, North Korea's wanted normalized relations with Washington. It's been repeatedly rebuffed. Promises made were broken. America needs enemies. North Korea is straight from central casting. Media scoundrels take full advantage.

On April 2, Washington Post editors headlined "Answer North Korea with financial sanctions," saying:

Kim Jong Un "managed to concoct a fresh provocative announcement aimed at Washington." He declared both Koreas "were back to a 'state of war.' " "Could this untested, 30-year-old dictator be preparing to start a war with the United States or South Korea? The worrying reality is that it is virtually impossible for outsiders to know for sure." Most likely he's "rally(ing) support behind the regime and to pressure the United States and its allies into opening negotiations." "As previous US administrations have learned the hard way, answering provocations with diplomacy will not lead to concessions by North Korea - only to another round of provocations."

Hit 'em again harder, urge Post editors. Pile new sanctions on current ones. Escalate tensions higher. Play the blame game. Denounce Pyongyang for Washington's bellicosity and provocations. Point fingers the wrong way.

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Dan Roberts

Nearly every mass shooting incident in the last twenty years, and multiple other instances of suicide and isolated shootings all share one thing in common, and its not the weapons used.

The overwhelming evidence points to the signal largest common factor in all of these incidents is the fact that all of the perpetrators were either actively taking powerful psychotropic drugs or had been at some point in the immediate past before they committed their crimes.

Multiple credible scientific studies going back more then a decade, as well as internal documents from certain pharmaceutical companies that suppressed the information show that SSRI drugs (Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors) have well known, but unreported side effects, including but not limited to suicide and other violent behavior. One need only Google relevant key words or phrases to see for themselves. ssristories.com is one popular site that has documented over 4500 “ Mainstream Media “ reported cases from around the World of aberrant or violent behavior by those taking these powerful drugs.

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Bill Van Auken

Washington's intent is to fashion a new dictatorial regime based upon the remnants of Assad’s security forces and fully subordinated to US imperialism’s predatory aims in the region.

The US and Jordanian militaries have stepped up a secret program to train thousands of armed fighters to send into Syria with the apparent aim of carving out a buffer zone in the south of the country.

Citing unnamed US and Jordanian officials, the Washington Post reported Wednesday that Washington has ordered the training of some 3,000 officers for the so-called Syrian rebels to be completed sooner than originally planned. The aim is to finish the training program by the end of this month to exploit advances made by anti-government militias along Syria’s 230-mile border with Jordan.

Last October it was revealed that the Pentagon had dispatched a 150-strong special operations task force to Jordan. At the time, the New York Times reported that “the idea of establishing a buffer zone between Syria and Jordan—which would be enforced by Jordanian forces on the Syrian side of the border—had been discussed in conjunction with the setting up of the US military outpost, located near the Syrian border.”

On Wednesday, anti-regime forces reportedly captured an air defense base on the outskirts of the southwestern Syrian city of Daraa, just miles from the Jordanian border. Earlier, they seized the main border crossing between the two countries, along with two military outposts and a stretch of highway leading to Damascus.

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Stephen Lendman

Zionist entity "Israel" tortured Arafat Jaradat to Death

Israel operates one of the world's most unconscionable gulags. Thousands of Palestinian political prisoners fill it. Fundamental human rights are denied. Torture, ill-treatment and medical neglect are commonplace.

In February, Arafat Jaradat was lawlessly arrested. On arrival in detention he was healthy. He had no history of health problems. Shin Bet interrogators brutalized him. They did so mercilessly. They tortured him to death. Severe upper body bruising, blisters, and blot clots were visible. He had multiple broken bones in his neck, spine, arms and legs. He died in severe pain.

Dozens of other Palestinians perished the same way. Some did in prison. Others succumbed after release. Shin Bet killers remain unaccountable. They continue cruel and inhuman treatment. They do so with impunity. Their rap sheet is one of the world's worst.

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William Bowles

Under the title Fallujah children's 'genetic damage' that old war horse ‘literally’ of the BBC’s foreign propaganda service, John Simpson, manages not to mention the phrase ‘depleted uranium’ when allegedly reporting on the alarming rise in birth defects that include cancer, leukaemia and a horrific rise in child mortality since the US demolished the city of Fallujah in 2004. And it’s not until right at the end of the piece that the US attack on Fallujah is even mentioned, let alone depleted uranium!

Simpson says:

“Even if it’s possible to produce watertight scientific proof that American weapons were responsible for the genetic damage it will be almost impossible for the people who suffered to get any redress. American legislation makes it extremely difficult to sue the US government over acts of war.”

Well that takes care of that little problem then, doesn’t it. I trust the US government will reward Simpson for his slavish support of its wars of conquest and destruction.

Indeed, just look at the title of the video, the phrase genetic damage is in single quotes, thus the damage to the children of Fallujah, which is clearly and obviously genetic in origin, is questioned by the BBC’s spin meister Simpson. Worse, the video shows doctors comparing the effects of depleted uranium on the children of Fallujah with that of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and point out that in fact, they’re much worse than the damage inflicted by the Empire’s atomic bombs.

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Henry Herskovitz

Five members of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends attended a panel presentation which showcased Ben White and Max Blumenthal, both signatories to an on-line document which attempts to marginalize and silence Gilad Atzmon. This document is entitled "Not Quite 'Ordinary Human Beings'—Anti-imperialism and the anti-humanist rhetoric of Gilad Atzmon", and prompted this writer to contact Gilad to ask him for a few questions of these gentlemen.

The student organization who hosted this event, SAFE (no acronym really necessary, because that's how they want to play this game), threw the usual curveball: no live questions from the audience, just write your questions on a card and we will screen them. So that meant my question -- Why will neither Mr. Blumenthal or Mr. White debate Gilad Atzmon? -- was given the deep six and never saw light of day.

Now, running concurrent with this event was the Michigan v. Kansas NCAA basketball game, shown one flight down from the SAFE event. After the final seconds of the game ticked away, Max came down and was interested in its outcome. I invited him to our weekly vigil at Beth Israel, a mere twelve hours away and was told he had an early morning flight. Asking what time the flight departed got no response.

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Peter Symonds

South Korean President Park Geun-hye salutes during
a joint commission ceremony of 5,780 new officers of
Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines at the Gyeryong
military headquarters in South Korea, last Friday.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye yesterday gave her country’s military the green light to take any action that it saw fit in response to a threat from North Korea. Her comments escalate the danger of conflict on the Korean Peninsula amid ongoing joint war games between South Korea and the US, and warnings of war by North Korea.

Park, the daughter of former military dictator Park Chung-hee, told a defence ministry policy briefing that she regarded North Korea’s threats as “very serious”. She added: “If the North attempts any provocation against our people and country, you must respond strongly at the first contact with them, without political consideration.”

While Washington and Seoul portray their stance as purely defensive, the Yonhap News Agency reported that the South Korean military had unveiled a new contingency plan of “active deterrence” at yesterday’s briefing. The plan would allow the military “to launch a pre-emptive strike against North Korea if the North shows signs of an imminent nuclear or missile attack on the South,” Yonhap explained.

A presidential spokesman told Yonhap that Park had emphasised the need for “strong preparedness” in a special video call to the commander of the South Korean navy’s second fleet, which is based in the Yellow Sea, where disputed maritime boundaries have led to clashes in the past.

The US is intimately involved in these military preparations against North Korea. During the briefing session, the South Korean defence ministry reported that the drafting of a joint “tailored deterrence strategy” with the US was well underway and would be finalised by October.

Park won the December presidential election in South Korea, promising to hold dialogue with North Korea. Far from easing tensions, she has set the stage for a provocation by the South Korean military that could be followed by a rapid escalation of conflict. Park’s Saenuri Party, previously named the Grand National Party, was the political organisation of the US-backed military dictatorship, which only relinquished power in the late 1980s.

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Stephen Lendman

Agribusiness giant Monsanto's the world's leading GMO seed producer. They're hazardous to human health. They should be banned. They proliferate.

GMO foods and ingredients are toxic. They're unsafe to eat. Independent studies prove it. Monsanto and other agribusiness giants want all animal and vegetable life forms patented. They want worldwide food control.

Obama's a partner in crime. He promised GMO labeling. He's done nothing to mandate it. It gets worse.

His food czar is former Monsanto executive Michael Taylor. He serves as FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods. He believes unsafe ones are fit to eat.

On March 26, Obama signed the Monsanto Protection Act. It's the Farmer Assurance Provision rider in HR 933: Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013. It permits circumventing judicial decisions. If courts rule GMOs unsafe, Monsanto's free to ignore them. So is the Secretary of Agriculture. Legislation permits "continued cultivation, commercialization, and other specifically enumerated activities." Safety's a non-issue.

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Stephen Lendman

A company belonging to the relatives of Cypriot President
Nicos Anastasiades has reportedly moved millions of euros
out of the country a few days before a controversial levy
proposal by the Eurogroup was declared. (PressTV)

Grand theft is official Cypriot policy. Bank account haircuts are authorized. Those above 100,000 euros are targeted.

Depositors may lose much more than initially thought. Minimally it's around 40% of their money. It may be double that amount or more. Potentially it's everything.

In return, they'll get unsecured IOUs (promises to pay). They'll be converted to bank shares. They may end up worthless.

Small depositors aren't safe. If enough money isn't raised, they're vulnerable. Once thought safe bank accounts are being looted. It gets worse.

Friends of President Nicos Anastasiades got advance word. Cypriot newspaper Haravgi said A. Loutsios & Sons Ltd wired 21 million euros to London. It did so on March 12 and 13. It was days before capital controls were imposed.

Loutsios & Sons is co-owned by the husband of Anastasiades' daughter. The company denied Haravgi's report.

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Chris Floyd

As millions around the world mark the death of a god this weekend, let us add our voice to the chorus on this theme with a little number laid down back in ancient times (i.e., the last decade): End Times.

THIS IS NOT THE AGE OF DEFEAT ― This is the age of loss, not the age of defeat.

Drone strikes, kill lists, murderers and torturers approved for high office. Austerity for the poor, record profits for the rich. Truthtellers shackled, liars lauded, ignorance exalted, cruelty and callousness gilded with righteous piety. Everywhere, goodness is driven to its knees, and this brutality is not decried but celebrated.

As in that age of iron that lowered over our forbears during dark night of the Thirties, you see faces once thought kind and kindred turn suddenly feral. Fear is behind it, but not just fear: also a self-hatred for what fear has turned them into, a self-hatred that cannot be borne and so is turned outward, thrown outward, into harsh projections of hatefulness, violence and desolation.

The avid embrace of what was once denounced, or the sad but “savvy” acceptance of the “lesser evil”: this is what we see at every turn today among ourselves, among those we thought were our own, and sometimes, maybe – when the lowering is darkest, heaviest – in mirrors as we pass. When the lowering is darkest, when the soul is lost. In them. In us. This is the age of loss – but it is not the age of defeat.

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Paul Craig Roberts

Where is the good to rise up against the evil?

In America truth is offensive. If you tell the truth, you are offensive.

I am offensive. Michael Hudson is offensive. Gerald Celente is offensive. Herman Daly is offensive. Nomi Prins is offensive. Pam Martens is offensive. Chris Hedges is offensive. Chris Floyd is offensive. John Pilger is offensive. Noam Chomsky is offensive. Harvey Silverglate is offensive. Naomi Wolf is offensive. Stephen Lendman is offensive. David Ray Griffin is offensive. Ellen Brown is offensive.

Fortunately, many others are offensive. But how long before being offensive becomes being “an enemy of the state”?

Throughout history truth tellers have suffered and court historians have prospered. It is the same today. Gerald Celente illustrates this brilliantly in the next issue of the Trends Journal.

Over the past 35 years I have learned this lesson as a columnist. If you tell readers what is really going on, they want to know why you can’t be positive. Why are you telling us that there are bad happenings that can’t be remedied? Don’t you know that God gave Americans the power to fix all wrongs? What are you? Some kind of idiot, an anti-American, a pinko-liberal-commie? If you hate America so much, why don’t you move to Cuba, Iran or China (or to wherever the current bogyman is located)?

The ancient Greeks understood this well. In Greek mythology, Cassandra was the prophetess who no one believed despite her 100 percent record of being right. Telling the truth to Americans or to Europeans is just as expensive as telling the truth to the Greeks in ancient mythology.

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Stephen Lendman

Montage: Clockwise from top: U.S. Marines retreating during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir; U.N. landing at Incheon harbor, starting point of the Battle of Inchon; Korean refugees in front of an American M26 Pershing tank; U.S. Marines, led by First Lieutenant Baldomero Lopez, landing at Incheon; F-86 Sabre fighter aircraft.

On July 27, 1953, the Korean War ended. An uneasy armistice persists. The heavily fortified 2.5 mile Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separates North and South. Occasional incidents occur.

Truman's war never ended. Its origin was misreported. IF Stone's "Hidden History of the Korean War" explained. Monthly Review co-founders Leo Huberman and Paul Sweezy wrote in the preface:

"This book....paints a very different picture of the Korean War - one, in fact, which is at variance with the official version at almost every point."

Stone's investigative research presented a "full-scale reassessment of the whole" war. French publisher Claude Bourdet added:

"IF Stone's thesis corresponds to reality, we are in the presence of the greatest swindle in the whole of military history....not a question of a harmless fraud but of a terrible maneuver in which deception is being consciously utilized to block peace at a time when it is possible."

Stone called it international aggression. So did Huberman and Sweezy, saying:

"....we have come to the conclusion that (South Korean president) Syngman Rhee deliberately provoked the North Koreans in the hope that they would retaliate by crossing the parallel in force. The northerners fell neatly into the trap."

Beating up on North Korea persists. It's done for geopolitical reasons. Washington needs enemies. When none exist they're created. North Korea comes straight from central casting.

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