The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), formed in 1961 during the Cold War, is a group of 120 states and 17 observer states not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. The NAM held its opening 2012 session yesterday under the new chairmanship of Iran, which succeeded Egypt as the Chair. - Significantly, an Associated Press story in the Washington Post headlined, “Iran opens nonaligned summit with calls for nuclear arms ban”, reported that “Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi opened the gathering by noting commitment to a previous goal from the nonaligned group, known as NAM, to remove the world’s nuclear arsenals within 13 years. ‘We believe that the timetable for ultimate removal of nuclear weapons by 2025, which was proposed by NAM, will only be realized if we follow it up decisively,’ he told delegates.” Yet the New York Times, which has been beating the drums for war with Iran, just as it played a disgraceful role in the deceptive reporting during the lead-up to the Iraq War, never mentioned Iran’s proposal for nuclear abolition. The Times carried the bland headline on its front page, “At Summit Meeting, Iran Has a Message for the World”, and then went on to state, “the message is clear. As Iran plays host to the biggest international conference …it wants to tell its side of the long standoff with the Western powers which are increasingly convinced that Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons”, without ever reporting Iran’s offer to support the NAM proposal for the abolition of nuclear weapons by 2025.

PressTV: Iran urges UN to help create nuclear-free Middle East
Finian Cunnigham: Iran NAM summit sends message of peace

Rachel Corrie was a 23-year old American peace activist who was run over and killed by an Israeli on a bulldozer, on March 16, 2003 in Nablus, Palestine. Corrie was protesting Israel's systematic destruction of Palestinian homes.

Gilad Atzmon: Rachel Corrie and the Kosher Legal Stamp
Stephen Lendman: Israeli Court Legitimizes Murder
Jean Shaoul: Israeli court rules army not responsible for Rachel Corrie’s death
Mazin Qumsiyeh/Desert Peace: A reminder that Rachel Corrie was not alone - Video
Gideon Levy/Desert Peace: Despite the verdict, Rachel Corrie was murdered by Israel!

The US is literally training their own Taliban enemies to kill American soldiers. - Three more NATO troops have been killed by a man in an Afghan army uniform, in the latest of such “insider attacks” leaving a bad taste in the mouth of US officials seeking to finish out a lost war for another two years. The number of such incidents, termed “green-on-blue” attacks have been increasing steadily as of late, with 34 of them so far this year, ending with 45 NATO members killed, mostly Americans. The failure of the US mission in Afghanistan – to build up and train a centralized state and security apparatus – is illustrated clearly in the constant killing of US soldiers by their Afghan counterparts. Much of the security force has been infiltrated by the Taliban or Pakistani agents. Earlier this month it was reported that the Taliban’s supreme leader Mullah Omar issued a statement bragging about extensive insurgent infiltration in America’s trained security personnel in Afghanistan.

What a depressing choice the American people are being presented with this year. We are at a point in our history where we desperately need a change of direction in the White House, and we are guaranteed that we are not going to get it. The Democrats are running the worst president in American history, and the Republicans are running a guy who is almost a carbon copy of him. The fact that about half the country is still supporting Barack Obama shows how incredibly stupid and corrupt the American people have become. [...] Republicans are being told that they have "no choice" but to vote for Romney because otherwise they will get another four years of Obama. This "lesser of two evils" theme comes out every four years. We are told that we "must" vote for a horrible candidate because the other guy is even worse. Well, millions of Americans are getting sick of this routine. Perhaps that is why it is being projected that as many as 90 million Americans of voting age will not vote this year. Yes, Barack Obama has been so horrible as president that it is hard to put it into words. But Mitt Romney would be just like Barack Obama. Those that are dreaming of a major change in direction if Romney is elected are going to be bitterly, bitterly disappointed.

ThinkProgress: Condi Rice Can’t Name A Specific Obama Foreign Policy Failure

Enormous quantities of decommissioned Russian nuclear reactors and radioactive waste were dumped into the Kara Sea in the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia over a course of decades, according to documents given to Norwegian officials by Russian authorities and published in Norwegian media. Bellona had received in 2011 a draft of a similar report prepared for Russia’s Gossoviet, the State Council, for presentation at a meeting presided over by then-president Dmitry Medvedev on Russian environmental security.

Not just the Russians: Ocean disposal of radioactive waste

In Feb. Guatemalan President Molina said his country is “not doing what the US says, we're doing what we have to do” — decriminalize drugs. Now US Marines have been sent in to help oust the Zeta Drug Cartel. The US Navy, Coast Guard, & federal agents are also involved. - The Marines are now encamped after having deployed to Guatemala earlier this month, and have just “kicked off” their share of Operation Martillo, or Hammer. That operation began earlier in January, and is much larger than just the Marine contingent and involves the Navy, Coast Guard, and federal agents working with the Guatemalans to block drug shipment routes.

It’s a big shift for U.S. forces in the region. For years, the Pentagon has sent troops to Guatemala, but these missions have been pretty limited to exercising “soft power” — training local soldiers, building roads and schools. Operation Martillo is something quite different. The news comes as two U.S. agents wounded in an attack in Mexico last week were discovered to be likely working for the CIA. The attack appears to be a case of mistaken identity after the agents fled from a Federal Police checkpoint, thinking the plain-clothed Mexican cops were cartel members. Police, seeing the agents’ bulletproof SUV flee their checkpoint, presumably thought the same thing, followed them and shot up their car. The agents have now been discovered as likely working for the CIA, as one of the wounded agents’ false identity was linked to a post office box in Virginia previously tied to CIA rendition flights.

Cryptogon.com/Post-Gazette/NYT: ‘Americans Shot in Mexico Were CIA Operatives Aiding in Drug War’

Nearly two weeks after he was hauled off by authorities and admitted to a psych ward over his own Facebook postings, retired Marine Brandon Raub is speaking out about his detainment and what Americans should know about their right to free speech.

Raub, a 26-year-old decorated military vet that served two tours overseas, was visited by agents with the US Secret Service, the FBI and local law enforcement on August 16 after statements he made on his personal Facebook page raised the eyebrows of authorities. Posts calling for a political revolution and even lyrical excerpts from rap songs placed his social networking profile on the government’s radar, and after briefly questioning him at his house two weeks ago, Raub was handcuffed and hauled off. One week later he was released from custody, but Raub and his attorney say that not only was no crime committed, but that the Marine still has yet to be charged with a crime. “The idea that a man can be snatched out of his property without being read his rights, I think should be very alarming to all Americans,” Raub says in an interview this week conducted by his attorney, the Rutherford Institute’s John Whitehead (YouTube link).

End of American Dream: Why Does The U.S. Government Treat Military Veterans Like Human Garbage?

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the US and its allies abuse the “illogical, unjust and completely undemocratic” structure of the UN Security Council to impose their bullying on the world. - “This is a flagrant form of dictatorship, which is antiquated and obsolete and whose expiry date has passed,” Ayatollah Khamenei said during an inaugural speech to the 16th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran on Thursday. The Leader added that the US and its accomplices protect the interests of the West in the name of “human rights”, interfere militarily in other countries in the name of “democracy” and target defenseless people in villages and cities with their bombs and weapons in the name of “combating terrorism”. Ayatollah Khamenei said torture and assassination are condoned if they are carried out by the US, the Israeli regime and their puppets. They (the West) impose their interests on world nations in the name of “international law” and their domineering and illegal demands in the name of “international community”, the Leader stated.

PressTV: Iran urges UN to help create nuclear-free Middle East
Finian Cunnigham: Iran NAM summit sends message of peace