Tom Peters

On Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry fired the latest shot in Washington’s campaign over the Chinese government’s “human rights” abuses. He called for the release of dissident and Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, who has been imprisoned for five years, as well as others jailed “for peacefully exercising their universal right to freedom of expression.” He noted that a UN working group determined Liu’s detention to be “in contravention of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

Kerry’s remarks followed a speech last week by US national security advisor Susan Rice, entitled “Human Rights: Advancing American Interests and Values.” She singled out China for its “increasing restrictions on ... freedoms of expression, assembly and association.” Rice declared that officials were not held accountable for “corruption, environmental abuses, worker and consumer safety, or public health crises,” while “religious minorities—such as Tibetans and Uighurs—are denied their fundamental freedoms.” She said the imprisonment of political dissidents meant that “no one in China, including Americans doing business there, can feel secure.”

During his Asian tour last week, Vice President Joe Biden also pushed Washington’s “human rights” barrow. Addressing a US business audience in Beijing, he called on the Chinese government to allow people to “speak freely” and “challenge orthodoxy,” specifically criticising the “treatment of US journalists” whose visas were not renewed.

There is no doubt that the Chinese regime resorts to police-state measures to suppress criticism and opposition, particularly from the working class. However, the Obama administration’s statements have nothing to do with concern for democratic rights in China, especially for workers, whose exploitation generates enormous profits for US-based corporations.

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Mark Glenn

Considering the seriousness of what had just taken place, i.e. Benjamin Netanyahu's infamous cartoon bomb speech at the U.N. in September 2012, the reaction on the part of the world was everything it should not have been, meaning mirth, merriment, and ridicule.

The reason why this was the wrong reaction is because there was nothing funny about it. What the world had just witnessed was a deadly-serious/high-level gangster within La Kosher Nostra (with zero tolerance for being mocked) threatening to blow up the world if his demands were not met viz a viz increased war in the Middle East for Israel's sake. And now, over a year later, all can be rest assured that neither his intentions nor his mood have improved a bit.

In fact, quote the contrary, given the fact that gasoline has been tossed onto the fire of Netanyahu's already raging fury with the following:

1. Obama has been re-elected to the presidency, despite Netanyahu's very overt interference and under-handed countermeasures.

2. A nuclear-armed Russia has awoken from her hibernation, stepped into the Middle East situation with all the poise and panache of a large, angry, territorially-protective grizzly bear and in the process, brought strategic balance to an otherwise chaotic situation in a manner not seen in decades. And, last but not least;

3. After 34 years of frosty-to-frigid relations between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic of Iran, the data coming in from all functioning barometers and thermometers indicates that the diplomatic and political weather between the two countries is--in Beatlese-- "gettin' better all the time..."

And if all of this weren't enough in jostling and exacerbating Netanyahu's already volcanic instability, added to it is the fact that powerful players within his own "famiglia" are working against him on a daily basis.

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Stephen Lendman

Ukrainian Protests Continue
Orange Revolution 2.0?

Ukraine matters. It's strategically located. It's in Europe's geographic center. It borders seven countries. In alphabetical order, they include Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Russia. After Western/Central Russia, it's Europe's largest country territorially. It's resource rich.

Zbigniew Brzezinski once said "without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire." Recently he said if Russia ever reunites with Ukraine, it'll be a Eurasian powerhouse. If Ukraine allies with Western Europe, Moscow will be significantly weakened geopolitically.

The battle for Ukraine continues. Its future is up for grabs. A previous article said street protests are manipulated. Washington's dirty hands are involved. Young militants were recruited. They're street thugs. They're up to no good. They're paid to protest. Radical nationalists joined them. Ukraine's future is at stake.

On Tuesday, mixed reports surfaced. President Viktor Yanukovych was quoted saying: "We cannot talk about the future without talking about restoring trade relations with Russia." He stressed a "future treaty on strategic partnership." — Does he or does he not mean a Customs Union? Agreeing to one rules out an EU alliance. It's one or the other, not both. At the same time, he repeated what he said earlier. He favors European integration.

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Christine Stone

President Yanukovych meeting Chairman Xi Jinping in Bei-
jing on December 5, 2013

Christine Stone asks whether the current crisis over the Ukraine’s relationship with the EU was precipitated by the West rather than President Yanukovich.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the demonstrations that have crippled central Kiev for the past fortnight is how they were triggered. Even allowing that ordinary people could be excited by a lengthy technical Euro document like the Association Agreement, why did the crisis over Ukraine’s signature only emerge on the eve of the Vilnius Summit three weeks ago? Is the fairy tale story that a benevolent EU was rejected at the last moment by a scheming Ukrainian president really true? The West and its vocal friends on the streets of Kiev seemed better prepared for the crisis than the President who allegedly caused it by suddenly refusing his signature in Vilnius.

Viktor Yanukovich’s government had been negotiating a partnership agreement with Brussels for several years. The administration in Kiev will have been aware for some time of the heavy burden this would impose on the Ukrainian economy. But, what about the corresponding burden that assuming moral responsibility for Ukraine’s massive debts would impose on the EU? In fact, in the small print of newspapers like the Financial Times some economists raised the alarm. Ignoring the posturing of politicos like Jose-Manuel Barroso and Guido Westerwelle, did the more financially literate apparatchiks in Brussels really want the EU to run the risk of - possibly – accepting the moral hazard of endorsing a state with a debt-mountain and huge installments due early in 2014?

At the last minute, and very conveniently, the IMF appeared on the scene to blow the deal apart.

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Paul Craig Roberts

The payroll jobs report for November from the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the US economy created 203,000 jobs in November. As it takes about 130,000 new jobs each month to keep up with population growth, if the payroll report is correct, then most of the new jobs would have been used up keeping the unemployment rate constant for the growth in the population of working age persons, and about 70,000 of the jobs would have slightly reduced the rate of unemployment. Yet, the unemployment rate (U3) fell from 7.3 to 7.0, which is too much for the job gain. It seems that the numbers and the news reports are not conveying correct information.

As the payroll jobs and unemployment rate reports are released together and are usually covered in the same press report, it is natural to assume that the reports come from the same data. However, the unemployment rate is calculated from the household survey, not from payroll jobs, so there is no statistical relationship between the number of new payroll jobs and the change in the rate of unemployment.

It is doubtful that the differences in the two data sets can be meaningfully resolved. Consider only the definitional differences. The payroll survey counts a person holding two jobs as if it were two employed persons, while the household survey counts a person holding two jobs as one job. Also the two surveys treated furloughed government workers during the shutdown differently. They were unemployed according to the household survey and employed according to the payroll survey.

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Barry Grey

The American media has blacked out an account by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh demonstrating that President Barack Obama and the US government lied when they claimed to have proof that the Syrian government carried out a sarin gas attack last August on areas near Damascus held by US-backed “rebels.”

Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, US ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power and other top officials declared categorically that the August 21 attack on Eastern Ghouta, which reportedly killed hundreds of people, had been carried out by the Syrian military. They, along with the leaders of Britain and France, sought to use the gas attack to stampede public opinion behind their plans to attack Syria, cripple the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, and install a puppet government.

In the end, internal differences over the launching of direct military action combined with broad popular opposition to another unprovoked war in the Middle East led the administration to pull back and accept a Russian plan for the dismantling of Syrian chemical weapons. This was followed by the opening of talks with Iran, Syria’s main ally in the region.

Hersh’s article, entitled “Whose sarin?,” was published Sunday by the London Review of Books. Based on information provided by current and former US intelligence and military officials, Hersh showed in great detail that Washington manipulated intelligence to create the impression that it had tracked the Syrian military preparing to launch a poison gas attack in the days leading up to the sarin strike on Eastern Ghouta. In fact, US intelligence had no advance warning of the attack.

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Joseph Kishore

What is at issue is not whether this information is “useful” to police, but whether the mass collection of location data without a warrant is legal and constitutional.

With the support of the Obama administration, police agencies in the US receive detailed call and location records of Americans’ cell phone activity without a warrant, according to reports released yesterday. The information could be used to track the movements of individuals and quickly determine who is involved in protests or other political activity.

Cell phone information, which includes location data, is gathered by police in at least two different ways:

1. By obtaining cell phone “tower dumps” of data from major telecommunication companies;
2. By utilizing special mobile devices, known as Stingrays, that masquerade as a cell phone tower to intercept data in the surrounding area.

A report by the Washington Post was based on information revealed in a US Senate inquiry, while the USA Today and Gannett newspapers published a separate analysis based on public records.

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Barry Grey

Syria, Sarin, and Subterfuge: They Made It All Up

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has published an article demonstrating that the US government and President Barack Obama knowingly lied when they claimed that the Syrian government had carried out a sarin gas attack on insurgent-held areas last August.

Hersh’s detailed account, based on information provided by current and former US intelligence and military officials, was published Sunday in the London Review of Books. The article, entitled “Whose sarin?,” exposes as a calculated fraud the propaganda churned out day after day by the administration and uncritically repeated by the media for a period of several weeks to provide a pretext for a military attack on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The article also reveals sharp differences within the state apparatus over the launching of an air war that one high-level special operations adviser said would have been “like providing close air support for [Al Qaeda-affiliated] al-Nusra.”

In the end, internal differences over the launching of direct military action, compounded by massive popular opposition to another unprovoked war in the Middle East, led the administration to pull back and accept a Russian plan for the dismantling of Syrian chemical weapons. This was followed by the opening of talks with Syria’s main ally in the region, Iran.

Hersh’s account of systematic manipulation of intelligence aimed at dragging the American people into yet another war based on lies underscores the fact that Obama’s retreat in Syria by no means signaled a turn away from militarism. Rather, it reflected a provisional change in tactics in relation to US hegemonic aims in the oil-rich Middle East, and a decision to focus more diplomatic and military resources on Washington’s drive to isolate and contain what it considers more critical antagonists: Russia and, above all, China.

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Stephen Lendman

Kerry doesn't have an agenda of his own until his Jewish swen-
gali establishes one for him. Out of sheer politeness we'll refer
to this particular one as 'John Kerry's agenda'. But it is anti-Pale-
stinian through-and-through of course. No surprise there, con-
sidering where it originated from and considering too, it must be
said, who really owns the government of the United States. -Ed.

He's no peacemaker. He never was throughout 30 years in state and federal government service. He's one of America's privileged. He's super-rich. His record shows exclusive support for wealth and power. He spurns popular interests.

He's been conducting Middle East shuttle diplomacy for months. He's Israel's man at State. He's no honest broker. He never was. He's not now. His dirty hands are manipulating dead on arrival Israeli/Palestinian peace talks. They're more pretense than real. They demand unconditional Palestinian surrender. Israel is all take and no give. So is Washington. Peace in our time reflects a convenient illusion.

Last week, Kerry met with Netanyahu and Abbas. He presented a new plan. It's largely old wine in new bottles. It focused on security issues.

On December 5, The New York Times headlined "Kerry, Seeking to Nudge Along Peace Talks, Offers Netanyahu Ideas on Security," saying: So far, "little visible headway" was achieved. Kerry is back trying again. He brought "American ideas," said The Times. They one-sidedly favor Israel. They offer Palestinians sticks, not carrots. So-called peace talks reflect same old, same old. Kerry brought nothing new. According to The Times: "Saeb Erekat, the senior Palestinian negotiator, said that Mr. Kerry did not present anything in a final form during the meeting in Ramallah."

Kerry's so-called peace proposal ignores it altogether. PA officials rejected it. An unnamed one said: "The Palestinian side rejected (it) because (it) would only lead to prolonging and maintaining the occupation."

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Stephen Lendman

Mainstream praise is unanimous. It ignores reality. It got short shrift. It reinvents Mandela's disturbing legacy. It turned a Thatcherite into a saint. A previous article discussed it. Editorials, commentaries, and feature articles read like bad fiction. Tributes are overwhelming.

They reflect coverup and denial. The true measure of Mandela is hidden from sight. It's willfully ignored. Illusion replaced it.

Obama issued a disingenuous statement. He called Mandela "a man who took history in his hand, and bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice." "We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela again."

They infest world governments. They run America. They inflict enormous harm. Mandela exceeded the worst of South African apartheid injustice. He deserves condemnation, not praise.

White supremacy remains entrenched. Extreme poverty, unemployment, homelessness, hunger, malnutrition, and lack of basic services for black South Africans are at shockingly high levels. They're much worse than under apartheid. Mandela embraced the worst of neoliberal harshness.
Mandela could have changed things. He never tried. He didn't care. He sold out to wealth, power and privileged interests. He did so shamelessly. His life ended unapologetically.

His successors followed the same model. They still do. They're stooges for predatory capitalist injustice. They're figureheads. They enforce white supremacist dominance. They betray their own people in the process.

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Justin Raimondo

For months prior to the events in Ghouta the Syrian rebel propaganda machine had been revving up its motors, churning out murky YouTube videos supposedly documenting poison gas attacks by Syrian government forces. None of which were very convincing.

It wasn’t until late summer that the rebel narrative took hold in the mainstream media with an account of a Syrian government attack on Ghouta that reportedly killed anywhere from 1400 to approximately 250 people. The Obama administration latched on to these allegations and then some, assuring us that there was absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the Assad forces were responsible. Indeed, the President presented the American people with a fairly precise scenario that sounded almost like an eyewitness account:

"In the days leading up to August 21st, we know that Assad’s chemical weapons personnel prepared for an attack near an area where they mix sarin gas. They distributed gas masks to their troops. Then they fired rockets from a regime-controlled area into 11 neighbourhoods that the regime has been trying to wipe clear of opposition forces."

Administration officials made it seem as if we had tracked in real time the various steps Syrian government troops took in preparing the atrocity, and the War Party shouted hosannas to the NSA. There was just one problem: it was all a lie.

[Firstly,] as Seymour Hersh reports in the London Review of Books, there was no way the administration could have monitored communications between Assad and his commanders, since the Syrians had discovered – and plugged up – holes in their security months prior to the incident. (We know this thanks to Edward Snowden.) So they were lying about that. Secondly, the sensors the Americans (or someone) had planted near Syrian chemical arms caches detected nothing in the days prior to the attack: if Assad had launched the sarin-packed missiles, alarm bells would’ve gone off in Washington. They didn’t. Yes, but there was an attack utilizing poison gas that took place in Ghouta on August 21 – so who did it?

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Stephen Lendman

Stephen Lendman: Orange Revolution 2.0?

Pro-EU elements called for a Sunday "March of Millions." They hoped for maximum numbers turning out. Their plan is a Washington manipulated power grab. It's got nothing to do with democracy. It ignores Ukrainian sovereign rights. The event's slogan was "Ukraine for Europe." It should be named Ukraine for Western corporate predators.

At noon Sunday Kiev time, Itar Tass estimated about 1,000 in Independence Square. By mid-afternoon, thousands more joined them. Reports differ. AP said "several hundred thousand." Russia Today had a live feed. Visually the crowd size looked large. It was hard estimating numbers. Perhaps tens of thousands, not hundreds participated. It was far below a million.

At the same time, thousands of pro-government supporters gathered in Mariinsky Park. It's close to Ukraine's parliament building. The event's slogan was "Let's Build Europe in Ukraine." According to Kiev's ruling Party of Regions' press report, "speakers are calling for a peaceful settlement of the situation and condemn the actions of the opposing forces, aimed at splitting the society." They're being manipulated to cause trouble. They want President Viktor Yanukovych ousted. They want his cabinet ministers replaced.

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Wayne Madsen

The revelations that Sweden’s equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), the National Defense Radio Establishment or Försvarets Radioanstalt (FRA), helped the global NSA FIVE EYES alliance to eavesdrop on Russia’s political leadership invalidates Sweden’s long-claimed military neutrality, a status that was in place from the end of the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century and which survived the Second World War…

FRA has, ever since the days of the Cold War, been a top Third Party signals intelligence (SIGINT) partner for the NSA, even during times when Sweden’s foreign policy was aggressively neutral, such as during the term of Social Democratic Prime Minister, Olof Palme, assassinated in 1986 by what many suspect was a plot involving the CIA. The use of FRA by the United States as a secretive NSA alliance partner in a deal that was largely unknown to Sweden’s own prime minister evokes similar suspicions about the SIGINT services of two Second Party partners of the NSA. In 1975, after Australia’s Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam demanded information on NSA and CIA activities at the U.S. Pine Gap intelligence complex in Alice Springs, as well as the activities of Australia’s Defense Signals Directorate (DSD), he was deposed in a coup led by Governor General John Kerr, a CIA agent-of-influence.

Similarly, after New Zealand Labor Prime Minister David Lange inquired as to details of the intelligence relationship between New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) and NSA, he was deposed in a 1989 backbencher coup engineered by U.S. intelligence.

Ever since Palme’s assassination on a Stockholm street, Sweden has been governed by a series of pro-U.S. prime ministers, in addition to other senior Cabinet ministers. Most notable among these is former Prime Minister and current Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who has been identified by WikiLeaks as a longtime CIA asset.

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Stephen Lendman

On December 5, Mandela died peacefully at home in Johannesburg. Cause of death was respiratory failure. He was 95. Supporters called him a dreamer of big dreams. His legacy fell woefully short. More on that below.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation, Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, and Mandela Rhodes Foundation issued the following statement:

"It is with the deepest regret that we have learned of the passing of our founder, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela - Madiba. The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa will shortly make further official announcements. We want to express our sadness at this time. No words can adequately describe this enormous loss to our nation and to the world. We give thanks for his life, his leadership, his devotion to humanity and humanitarian causes. We salute our friend, colleague and comrade and thank him for his sacrifices for our freedom. The three charitable organisations that he created dedicate ourselves to continue promoting his extraordinary legacy."

He'll be buried according to his wishes in Qunu village. It's where he grew up. In 1943, he joined the African National Congress (ANC). He co-founded its Youth League.

He defended what he later called Thatcherism. On trial for alleged Sabotage Act violations, he said in court:

"The ANC has never at any period of its history advocated a revolutionary change in the economic structure of the country, nor has it, to the best of my recollection, ever condemned capitalist society."

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Patrick O’Connor

Long standing leader of the African National Congress (ANC) and the first president of post-Apartheid South Africa, Nelson Mandela, died December 5 in Johannesburg at age 95, after suffering a protracted respiratory illness.

Mandela’s death has been accompanied by an outpouring of tributes from world leaders, each seeking to outdo the other in presenting the most mawkish depictions of Mandela as a secular saint. US President Barack Obama called the former ANC leader “one of the most influential, courageous, and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this Earth,” while his predecessor, George W. Bush, described Mandela as “one of the great forces for freedom and equality of our time.”

Underlying the cynical rhetoric of the current and former war criminals occupying the White House, and that of their allied heads of government around the world, is genuine gratitude for the invaluable service Mandela rendered to the South African ruling elite and world imperialism. Mandela utilised his indubitable political skills and personal courage to stave off the threat of a social revolution in South Africa, dismantling the Apartheid regime while defending capitalism and protecting the property and wealth of the country’s white rulers and of transnational corporate investors.

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