Wayne Madsen

Through a myriad of «civil society» organizations, the United States has been financing Chechen groups inside the autonomous republic, in Russia, and abroad. However, large portions of U.S. assistance money has «bled» over to support Chechen and other North Caucasus terrorist groups, which the U.S. State Department and U.S. intelligence agencies insist on referring to as «separatist guerrillas», «nationalists», «insurgents», and «rebels», instead of terrorists.

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has continuously refused to refer to Chechen and Islamic Emirate terrorists operating in Russia as «terrorists». NSA analysis reports of signals intelligence (SIGINT) intercepts of Russian police, Federal Security Bureau (FSB), Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and Russian military communications, including radio, landline and cellular telephone, fax, text message, and fax, have, since 2003, referred to Chechen and North Caucasus terrorists as «guerrillas». Prior to that year, TOP SECRET Codeword internal NSA directives stated that Chechen terrorists were to be called «rebels».

Imagine the surprise if the United States began referring to «Al Qaeda» as Islamist guerrillas and rebels instead of terrorists. Yet, that is exactly how the NSA and CIA have referred to terrorists in Russia that have launched deadly attacks on airports, trains, subway stations, schools, and movie theaters throughout the Russian Federation.

More »

Paul Craig Roberts

Dear Readers: If you have not read “You Are The Hope” please do so now and make a donation. Due to readers’ inquiries about last Friday’s job numbers, I have had to shorten the time between the quarterly appeal and a new posting. Also, those who have asked if there would be a second printing of How The Economy Was Lost, that book is now available on the CounterPunch website in electronic form. For those readers who have asked for a print version of The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism, one might soon be appearing. As the government’s lies come faster and more furious, more demands my attention. Please keep this in mind if you do not receive answers to your emails.

Dave Kranzler of Golden Returns Capital declares the April payroll jobs report that was released on May 3 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to be “fictitious.” Statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) says both the jobs report and unemployment rate are “nonsense.”

I agree with both. But don’t expect the financial press to report the facts. Let’s take a walk through the BLS report and you can arrive at your own conclusion.

The BLS report says that the private sector created 185,000 service jobs in April. Even if this report were true, it would have negligible effect on the unemployment rate as about 127,000 new jobs are needed each month just to stay even with population growth and current unemployment rate. But is the BLS report true?

More »

Thomas Gaist

The wolf turned to the lamb and said, "How dare you make the water muddy? Can't you see that I am drinking water from the same stream?" The lamb got so much frightened that it could not speak for a while. Then it replied, "Sir, I beg your pardon. The water is running down from you to me. How can I make it muddy?" The wolf said, "But you bleated me and called me names last year" The lamb replied, "Sir, I was not even born then. How could I abuse you last year?" The wolf said to it, "Then it must have been your father or mother or brother." Saying so, the wolf caught him, tore him to pieces and ate him up. ~ Aesop

US officials continued to press for war against Syria yesterday, dismissing United Nations investigator Carla del Ponte’s statement that Western-backed opposition forces, not the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, had used chemical weapons.

Del Ponte’s comment, based on an investigation including extensive interviews by UN officials, tore to shreds the lie with which Washington has tried to justify its drive to war—namely, that it is attacking Syria to protect the people from Assad’s use of chemical weapons. (See also: “UN says US-backed opposition, not Syrian regime, used poison gas”).

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney summarily rejected del Ponte’s report without offering a shred of evidence to refute her statement. “We are highly skeptical of any suggestions that the opposition used chemical weapons. We find it highly likely that any chemical weapon use that has taken place in Syria was done by the Assad regime. And that remains our position,” Carney stated.

There is every reason to believe, in fact, that the opposition has used chemical weapons, as it has apparently received training on such weapons by the US or allied forces. According to a CNN report in December, the US has dispatched contractors and mercenaries for the purpose of training the rebels to “secure stockpiles and handle [chemical] weapons sites and materials.”

Opposition forces have received numerous shipments of weapons and equipment overseen by the United States and allied regimes such as Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Last December, opposition fighters posted a video on YouTube showing them testing chemical weapons and declaring their readiness to use them.

More »