03/20/12

Permalink Pentagon secret war game runs Israeli strike on Iran

An Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites may quickly spiral out of control and result in a large regional war, a Pentagon war game predicts. American casualties would be counted in hundreds [of thousands] at least. - The two-week game held by Central Command called Internal Look played on a scenario in which Israel carried out an air strike on Iranian facilities. Retaliation for this act targets both the Jewish state and the American forces in the region since, they presume, Iranians would hold them complicit in the attack. Results of the game are classified, but according to leaked details Iran managed to down at least one American warship in the Persian Gulf, killing 200 crew members on board, reports The New York Times. Separate strikes by Israel and the US managed to delay Iran’s nuclear program by just three years. The simulated conflict escalated into a wider regional war, showing that a possible attack on Iran would likely have unforeseeable and uncontrollable consequences. The result raises concern among those US military and civilian officials who are skeptical over Israel’s capability to deal a serious blow on Iran’s nuclear facilities through use of force.


Permalink Obama seizes control over all food, farms, livestock, farm equipment, fertilizer and food production across America

"We told ya so" just doesn't quite cut it anymore. As the American sheeple slept, selfishly refusing to take a stand against tyranny, the Obama administration has been plotting what can only be called a total government takeover of America.

President Obama issued an executive order entitled, "NATIONAL DEFENSE RESOURCES PREPAREDNESS." (Executive Order) This executive order states that the President alone has the authority to take over all resources in the nation (labor, food, industry, etc.) as long as it is done "to promote the national defense" -- a phrase so vague that it could mean practically anything. This takeover is designed, in part, to "stockpile supplies" for the U.S. military. Authority for this total takeover of all national resources is granted with nothing more than the writing of a single statement that claims these actions are necessary to "promote the national defense."

Russia Today: Did Obama sign a martial law executive order?
AWIP: President Obama signs Executive Order allowing for control over all US resources


Permalink Syrian armed groups commit rights violations: HRW

Syria’s armed groups embark on serious human rights violations, including torture, kidnapping and execution of the security forces and the government’s supporters, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) says. - In an open letter to anti-government groups, including the major opposition body, the Syrian National Council (SNC) on Tuesday, Middle East director at HRW Sarah Leah Whitson lashed out at the armed gangs in Syria over their abusive tactics against the government of President Bashar al-Assad and its supporters. She denounced the armed gangs’ “abuses” as "unjustifiable” and maintained that the "Opposition leaders should make it clear to their followers that they must not torture, kidnap or execute under any circumstances.” Syria has been dealing with unrest, reportedly sponsored by Western governments and their Arab allies, since mid-March 2011.


Permalink Russian Anti-Terror Troops Arrive in Syria

A Russian military unit has arrived in Syria, according to Russian news reports, a development that a United Nations Security Council source told ABC News was "a bomb" certain to have serious repercussions. - Russia, one of President Bashar al-Assad's strongest allies despite international condemnation of the government's violent crackdown on the country's uprising, has repeatedly blocked the United Nations Security Council's attempts to halt the violence, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to start another war. Now the Russian Black Sea fleet's Iman tanker has arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea with an anti-terror squad from the Russian Marines aboard according to the Interfax news agency. The Assad government has insisted it is fighting a terrorist insurgency. The Iman replaced another Russian ship "which had been sent to Syria for demonstrating (sic) the Russian presence in the turbulent region and possible evaluation of Russian citizens," the Black Sea Fleet told Interfax.


Permalink Amnesty: NATO Still Failing to Investigate Libyan Civilian Deaths

Amnesty International has become the latest in a long line of organizations taking NATO to task for its civilian killings in Libya’s 2011 civil war. Or rather, Amnesty is faulting NATO for its refusal to conduct investigations into those killings. - “NATO officials repeatedly stressed their commitment to protecting civilians,” the statement said, “they cannot now brush aside the deaths of scores of civilians with some vague statement of regret.” NATO initially claimed that not a single civilian was killed in their air strikes, but after a UN investigation uncovered 60 civilians killed, and also lashed NATO for refusing to cooperate with the probe, NATO did eventually cop to the killings of 55 of them.

David Elkins: Libyan Airstrike Victims Still Waiting for Redress


Permalink Corruption plagues all 50 states: study

There is currently no state in America with a great track record in dealing with corruption and transparency issues in its government, according to a detailed study by an investigation group released Monday. - Eight state governments received an “F” grade while no state received an “A” grade in the State Integrity Investigation, a report conducted by the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International. Ethical issues such as Georgia lawmakers taking illegal gifts from vendors, or a Maine politician not disclosing his role as executive director of an organization that received $98 million in state contacts were among the examples of corruption found in the study.

Michigan, North Dakota, South Carolina, Maine, Virginia, Wyoming, South Dakota and Georgia all received the lowest grades possible in the study, while New Jersey was the only state to receive a “B+” grade. Connecticut, Washington, California, and Nebraska also received grades “B-” or higher. Georgia finished dead last when it came to dealing with corruption.


Permalink Afghan massacre not act of lone gunman, witnesses say

Afghan eyewitnesses to the recent massacre of 16 civilians in Kandahar province say the slaughter was carried out by more than one US soldier. - According to a video broadcast by CNN on Sunday, Afghan villagers said multiple US troops broke into their houses and asked about the Taliban. Witnesses said that they told the troops that there were no Taliban there, but they started shooting at people anyway. Ali Ahmed said, “It was 3:00 a.m. when they entered a room and shot my uncle after asking where the Taliban are. My uncle replied that he didn’t know.” He added that the worst thing happened in the next room, where they entered and killed all the children there, including a two-month-old baby. Other villagers told CNN that after the carnage, the US soldiers piled up the dead bodies of the victims and set them on fire.

Stephen Lendman: Scoundrel Media Afghan Massacre Cover-Up
Bill Van Auken: Afghanistan massacre: The product of a criminal war

Stephen Lendman: A Decade of America Ravaging Afghanistan - US imperial wars treat civilians like combatants. To facilitate killing, soldiers are taught to dehumanize enemies, especially darker-skinned ones and Muslims. Training involves instilling Groupthink hate. Individuality and free thought are erased. Recruits are intimidated to go along. When America goes to war, scoundrel journalism hardens support. So do politicians, academics, religious and other leaders. They euphemize killing to justify lawlessness. At issue is conditioning public opinion to accept imperial policy like military trainers brainwash young recruits. Massacring 16 Afghans, including nine children, reflects state-sponsored murder.

Arthur Silber: The United States of Gary
Stephen Lendman: America's Afghanistan Legacy


Permalink Waiting for the Messiah: Netanyahu addresses Evangelical Christian gathering in Jerusalem

American Evangelical pastor John Hagee - who heads the largest pro-Israel lobby group in the United States - half jokingly compared Benjamin Netanyahu to the Messiah on Sunday night, as he waited for the delayed prime minister to arrive at a Jerusalem hotel to address the crowd. "There's a saying in Judaism about the Messiah - I know that even if he tarries, he'll come," Hagee told hundreds of members of Christians United for Israel. "I know that the prime minister will come, and even if he tarries, he'll come." But as Hagee introduced Netanyahu when he finally arrived half an hour later, the comparison with the Messiah no longer seemed so far-fetched. [...] And of course, there was Iran.

"When Iran is funding terror and violence all over the world and is calling for our annihilation, I don't have to explain to you why that regime can't have nuclear weapons," he said. "Our enemies don't hate us because of what we do, but because of who we are." [Benajmin Netanyahu on Iran]

"He is the most bloodthirsty or amateurish strategist in history . . . For over five years this man has been chasing around Europe like a madman in search of something that he could set on fire. . . [...]" [Adolf Hitler on Winston Churchill in speech to Reichstag in Berlin May 1941]


Permalink Multiple blasts kill 43, injure over 230 across Iraq

At least 43 people have been killed and over 230 others injured in bomb explosions in several Iraqi cities and towns ahead of the next week's Arab League summit in the capital city of Baghdad, Press TV reports.

The spate of violence, which rocked several Iraqi towns and cities spanning the southern holy city of Karbala and the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk on Tuesday between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m, was the deadliest incident in Iraq in nearly a month. Meanwhile, a car bomb detonated in a parking lot in front of the foreign ministry in the Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone. So far the number of probable casualties is unknown.

Russia Today: Dozens killed as terror blasts hit Iraqi cities
Margaret Griffis: Iraq: 9 Killed, 56 Wounded As Sadrists Gather to [Protest][the] Injustices


Permalink French election campaign on hold after school shooting

France effectively put its election campaign on hold Monday after a gunman killed three children and a teacher at a Jewish school and candidates set politics aside to condemn the shocking attack. - President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Socialist frontrunner in the presidential race, Francois Hollande, cancelled campaign events and rushed to the southern city of Toulouse, amid fears the attack could be the work of a serial killer. Speaking at the scene of the killings, Sarkozy announced a minute of silence in all French schools on Tuesday and said the state would throw its full weight behind the investigation.

PressTV: Neo-Nazis main suspects in French shootings


Permalink The "potato movement" is taking off across Greece: agricultural produce is being sold directly to consumers by their producers

There's some dispute about where and when it all started, but Christos Kamenides, genial professor of agricultural marketing at the University of Thessaloniki, is pretty confident he and his students have made sure it's not about to stop any time soon. What's sure is that the so-called potato movement, through which thousands of tonnes of potatoes and other agricultural produce – including, hopefully, next month, Easter lamb – are being sold directly to consumers by their producers, is taking off across Greece. "It's because everyone benefits," said Kamenides, standing in a clearing in the woods above Thessaloniki in front of one 25-tonne truck of potatoes, another of onions, and smaller vans of rice and olives. "Consumers gets good-quality food for a third of the price they would normally pay, and the producers get their money straight away." As devised by Kamenides and his students, it's a simple system. Their brainwave was to involve Greece's local municipalities, lending the movement a degree of both organisation and official encouragement that it might otherwise have lacked.


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