1 - A decade of war and occupation has not defeated the will of the Iraqi people to regain their national independence. The US attempt to conquer Iraq has failed, due to the continued resistance of the Iraqis and their refusal to allow themselves to be subjugated. The political process imposed by the occupation has resulted in a sectarian and ethnic divide, the result of a conscious policy to weaken and indeed to destroy the national identity of what was once the most developed country in the Arab world. Even as US policy to reconstruct the Middle East after its own designs has failed, it continues to speak of dividing the country into three as a last resort to guarantee control over the oil resources of the area.

2 - The Al-Maliki regime, left behind as the guardian of US interests under the imposed conditions of the Bremer decrees and constitution, has proved itself incapable of realizing the aspirations and hopes of the Iraqi people for peace and self-determination. Large segments of the population remain subjected to oppression or imprisonment as well as excluded from the political participation in the destiny of their country. The corrupt politicians and the so-called parliament in the green zone have continued to serve the interests of foreign powers rather than those of the Iraqi people. They have no role to play in the fight to bring peace and reconciliation to Iraq.

Dear friends, Very little is really know about the inner workings of the US-EU relationship and the corporate media only serves us the official and completely meaningless propaganda line. During the war in Korea, General MacArthur's insane threats to use nuclear weapons did trigger something of an European revolt (unlike the US, Europe was well within reach of Soviet bombers, including those with nuclear weapons). Could the absolute insanity of what is taking place in the Ukraine also trigger a European awakening? Could the European elites ever find it in themselves to stand up to the almighty Uncle Sam? Check out the short article below which, I think, is an amazing illustration of the real nature of the US-EU relationship. This article was translated from French into English by the same wonderful people who are the editors of vineyardsaker.fr, the French-language "mirror+" ("plus" because it has more than just translations of what is posted here). To them, yet again, I owe a big "merci les amis!". Kind regards, The Saker [Article here]

Professor Noam Chomsky, Sir Richard Dalton, Caroline Lucas, Ken Livingstone and others argue that the former UK prime minister is tainted by the war in Iraq. ● This Friday, 27 June, will mark the seven-year anniversary of Tony Blair's appointment as the Quartet representative to the Middle East. We, the undersigned, urge you to remove him with immediate effect as a result of his poor performance in the role, and his legacy in the region as a whole. We, like many, are appalled by Iraq's descent into a sectarian conflict that threatens its very existence as a nation, as well as the security of its neighbours. We are also dismayed, however, at Tony Blair's recent attempts to absolve himself of any responsibility for the current crisis by isolating it from the legacy of the Iraq war. In reality, the invasion and occupation of Iraq had been a disaster long before the recent gains made by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The sectarian conflict responsible for much of the war's reprehensible human cost was caused in part by the occupying forces' division of the country's political system along sectarian lines. In order to justify the invasion, Tony Blair misled the British people by claiming that Saddam Hussein had links to al-Qaida. In the wake of recent events it is a cruel irony for the people of Iraq that perhaps the invasion's most enduring legacy has been the rise of fundamentalist terrorism in a land where none existed previously. We believe that Mr Blair, as a vociferous advocate of the invasion, must accept a degree of responsibility for its consequences.

A former Ukrainian intelligence officer revealed that Dimtry Yarosh who is the leader of far-right political party (pravy sektor) has been holding frequent meetings since the onset of street protests with Mossad officers in Israeli embassy in Kiev. ● According to the former Ukrainian spy, the Israelis instructed Yarosh and his party to shift from peaceful demonstrations to more violent military actions. Israelis has trained many pravay sector members to shoot Ukrainian policemen in order to aggravate the sense of hatred between demonstrators and police. The current head of Ukraine’s security service is so close to Yarosh nationalist party. The interim government before the rise of newly elected government had removed all evidence relating to the events of the Independence Square in Kiev which may indicate Israelis were orchestrating unrest in that country. In addition, the United States also has an extensive relationship with Pravy Sektor. In late April 2014, when Yarosh travelled to Washington to co-ordinate his future policies with Americans, he received 5 million dollars from Victoria Nuland.

Where is the USS New York? At 684 feet long and displacing over 24,900 tons, the Mayport, Fla.-based San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock is no smart car of the seas. Yet the vessel has gone “dark” for more than a week now. ● The low profile might have something to do with the fact that the New York is currently home to the recently captured Ahmed Abu Khattala, one of the accused ringleaders of the Sept. 11-12, 2012, Benghazi terrorist attacks that left four Americans dead. While any ship’s location is supposed to be a well-guarded secret when deployed, the New York is in a unique position, because instead of threading its way through the Suez Canal or dodging a Chinese destroyer, it’s believed to be steaming toward the East Coast: Abu Khattala is expected to be arraigned soon in Washington.

xymphora ■ Whitney and Engdahl on the oddities of ISIS; Madsen on the situation in Ukraine. ● There are parallels. Both operations have deep roots. American destabilizing operations in Eastern Europe have been going on since the Soviet days, and more recently have been quietly chugging along, more of a gnat-like nuisance to people like Putin than anything serious. Part of the ISIS team was trained by Americans in Jordan, and the ISIS leadership is very suspicious. ● The oddities need an explanation, but the explanation is obviously not an American government conspiracy at the Obama-Kerry level. The American response in each case is simply too off-the-cuff and weak. Kerry is in the middle of one of the most embarrassing foreign tours of an American Secretary of State ever (the sentencing of the journalists in Egypt was Sisi spitting in Kerry's huge face), and Obama has nothing constructive to offer (an empire that has no answers is no longer an empire). Meanwhile, Putin is using the opening caused by American clumsiness, looking east, south and west, to build a New World Empire. ● In both Ukraine and Iraq, a quiet operation that wasn't going anywhere was turned around in a hurry by operatives working below the highest levels, in both cases against real American interests, in both cases leaving the high-level American response flat-footed and embarrassingly ineffectual, and in both cases working for the interests of the Zionist Empire. There is only one explanation for the lack of information at the top. Treason.

Animated short on the impact of depleted uranium weapons and the international campaign against them, produced by the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons and IKV Pax Christi.

Barry Mason ■ Recent report confirms: US depleted uranium weapons targeted civilian areas in Iraq war || “Laid to Waste”, a report by the Dutch Catholic NGO Pax Christi International, confirms that US forces in Iraq used depleted uranium (DU) weapons in civilian areas during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. More than a decade later, DU is still harming people’s health. The impact of the use of DU in 2003 added to that resulting from the Gulf War of 1991. Pax made field trips to Iraq in November 2013 and January 2014 to collect data for the report, visiting sites containing scrap metal remnants resulting from DU attacks. They interviewed people living or working nearby. DU weapons are formed into dart-like projectiles from the remains of natural uranium, left when it is enriched to make nuclear weapons or for use in a nuclear reactor. It is mildly radioactive, but is extremely dense—1.7 times that of lead. As well as being radioactive, it is chemically toxic. It was developed as a weapon to use against armour-plated objects like tanks and can be fired from planes, tanks or armoured vehicles. When fired the DU core of the projectile (the penetrator) penetrates the armour plating and burns fiercely, producing a radioactive and toxic dust.

Kelley Beaucar Vlahos: Really? Anticipated Study Finds No Evidence of Iraqi Birth Defects

Dennis J. Kucinich ■ As Iraq descends into chaos again, more than a decade after “Mission Accomplished,” media commentators and politicians have mostly agreed upon calling the war a “mistake.” But the “mistake” rhetoric is the language of denial, not contrition: it minimizes the Iraq War’s disastrous consequences, removes blame, and deprives Americans of any chance to learn from our generation’s foreign policy disaster. The Iraq War was not a “mistake” — it resulted from calculated deception. The painful, unvarnished fact is that we were lied to. Now is the time to have the willingness to say that. ■ In fact, the truth about Iraq was widely available, but it was ignored. There were no WMD. Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. The war wasn’t about liberating the Iraqi people. I said this in Congress in 2002. Millions of people who marched in America in protest of the war knew the truth, but were maligned by members of both parties for opposing the president in a time of war — and even leveled with the spurious charge of “not supporting the troops.”

Washington's Blog ■ The Chaos In Iraq Is By DESIGN

The case against the Saudi apes and their Obama criminal allies is shaping up to be a no-brainer, a slam dunk, as the foolhardy Colin Powell once said about Saddam’s WMDs. Well, yesterday, viewers were treated to another romp in the fantasy world of the Chicago terrorist, Obama, and his relentless pursuit of abysmal failure. We introduce to you the Nusra terrorist extraordinaire, terrorist par excellence, and garrulous terrorist fink weasel, Baaher ‘Abdul-Kareem Al-Ways.

Mariam Yahya Ibrahim, the Christian woman sentenced to death and later freed after an international outcry, was briefly re-arrested while trying to leave the country for the US before being released again. ■ Eman Abdul-Rahim, her lawyer, said Ms Ibrahim was held with her two children and husband at Khartoum airport. The BBC said Ms Ibrahim, whose death sentence in May for renouncing Islam sparked outrage, was detained by about 40 security agents. Last night, it was reported that she had been freed. Marie Harf, a spokeswoman for the US State Department, said the Sudanese government had informed American officials that Ms Ibrahim and her family were “temporarily detained” over issues relating to their travel documents. The family was held 24 hours after Ms Ibrahim’s husband, Daniel Wani, who has US citizenship, said they would go to America following his wife’s release.

The Independent: Nigerian man detained in mental institute in Kano 'because he renounced Islam'

Thomas "Beau" Walker, the great-great-great grandfather to [former] U.S. President George W. Bush, was a notorious slave trader who either personally led or heavily invested in expeditions to kidnap Africans from their homeland and bring them to America as slaves, a journalist and historian announced this week. Word of the presidential ancestor came by way of retired journalist and genealogist Roger Hughes and historian Joseph Opala, who illustrated their findings to Slate. They made the discovery by comparing the signatures of known Bush ancestor Thomas Walker with a notorious slave trader of the day who bore the same name. Stacked side-by-side, the signatures looked almost exactly the same. They also recovered several letters Walker wrote, in which he complains about the cost of the people he's kidnapped. "Times on the coast is by no means as favourable as I expected," Walker reportedly wrote. "Slaves is at the price of 150 [illegible] and the coast seemes [sic] to be lin'd with vessels of all kind." "I have purchased seventeen fine negroes and am this day proceeding down the coast to try what I do can there," another of Walker's letters reads. "Slaves is at a very greate [sic] price." There were at least two other known slave-owners in the Bush family, according to Hughes.

Leaked NSA documents reveal Denmark is among the 33 countries collaborating with the NSA. ■ Famous whistle-blower Edward Snowden has leaked four new NSA documents that show how widespread the NSA’s influence has become, with over 30 countries contributing to the international surveillance effort. Among these “Third-Parties”, as they’re referred to, are Denmark, Sweden and Norway. They are all part of the RAMPART-A program, which is essentially a deal between between the NSA and foreign countries who “provide access to cable and host US equipment,” according to the leaked document. Allowing the NSA to install surveillance devices on their fiber optic cables gives them access to phone calls, e-mails, internet chat and much more, according to The Intercept, an online news source started by Glenn Greenwald – the man who worked with Snowden on his original leak last year. In exchange, these countries get cutting-edge surveillance technology for their own purposes.

William Engdahl ■ The very details of the ISIS military success in the key Iraqi oil center, Mosul, are suspect. According to well-informed Iraqi journalists, ISIS overran the strategic Mosul region, site of some of the world’s most prolific oilfields, with barely a shot fired in resistance. According to one report, residents of Tikrit reported remarkable displays of “soldiers handing over their weapons and uniforms peacefully to militants who ordinarily would have been expected to kill government soldiers on the spot.” We are told that ISIS masked psychopaths captured “arms and ammunition from the fleeing security forces” - arms and ammunition supplied by the American government. The offensive coincides with a successful campaign by ISIS in eastern Syria. According to Iraqi journalists, Sunni tribal chiefs in the region had been convinced to side with ISIS against the Shiite Al-Maliki government in Baghdad. They were promised a better deal under ISIS Sunni Sharia than with Baghdad anti-Sunni rule.

Remember when in January 2014, Q1 GDP was expected to rise 2.6%? Well, here comes the final Q1 GDP revision and it's a doozy: at -2.9%, far below the -1.8% expected and well below the -1.0% second revision, it is an absolute disaster, and is the worst print since Q1 2009. And while a bad GDP print was largely expected, the driver wasn't: personal consumption expenditures somehow crashed from 3.1% to just 1.0%, far below the 2.4% expected, meaning that all hope of a consumer recovery is dead. Finally, as a reminder, US GDP has never fallen more than 1.5% except during or just before an NBER-defined recession since quarterly GDP records began in 1947. Good luck department of truth propaganda machine, because even assuming 3% growth every other quarter in 2014 means 2014 GDP will be 1.5% at best!

Tyler Durden: Bad News Is "Bad" News - Stocks Drop, Bonds/Gold Pop
NYT: Economy in First Quarter Was Worse Than Everybody Thought
Business Insider: Futures Sink After Ugly Economic Reports

A US courthouse ruled on Tuesday that adding names to airline no-fly lists without the accused party’s knowledge is illegal. ● The district court judge found that airline no-fly lists adversely affect passengers’ freedom to fly, without them having any way to appeal the decision. The ruling was handed down as part of a petition filed by 13 Muslims who were not allowed aboard a flight for no apparent reason.

LA Times: Federal judge declares government no-fly list rules unconstitutional
Wall Street Journal: Federal Judge Rules No-Fly List Violates Constitutional Rights
Tom DeWeese: No Fly Lists, Illegal Aliens and the Ravages of Political Correctness [October 18, 2004]

Almost three years have passed since the United States government extrajudicially murdered American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki with a drone strike in Yemen. Al-Awlaki, although described by the government as a “terrorist” mastermind, had never been charged with any crime. ● The Obama adminstration refused to disclose the legal reasoning behind the killing. But thanks to Freedom Information Act lawsuits by The New York Times and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a redacted version of the Department of Justice memo which outlines the Obama administration’s rationale for killing American citizens abroad without trial is now public. Authored by David Barron — former chief of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, who has since been appointed by Obama to a federal judgeship — the 41-page document seeks to legitimize so-called targeted killings, a practice Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, vigorously condemned Israel for using against Palestinians during the second intifada. This makes it all the more ironic that the Obama administration’s kill memo cites an Israeli Supreme Court decision to justify al-Awlaki’s summary execution.

Barry Grey ■ The Obama drone murder memo || Obama’s secret decision to place Awlaki on his “kill list” was leaked to the press in April of 2010. The memo by the then-head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, David Barron, claiming that the Constitution and US laws gave the president the power to kill a US citizen, without charge or trial, was sent to Attorney General Eric Holder in July of 2010. Awlaki’s father filed a suit in federal court to remove his son from the kill list, but the case was thrown out in December of 2010. Thus the murder of Awlaki was organized over a protracted period of time. It was a cold-blooded extra-judicial killing by the state.

The upper chamber of Russian parliament revoked the resolution authorizing the use of military force in Ukraine on Wednesday upon the request of President Vladimir Putin. ■ The respective letter from President Putin asking to cancel the resolution reached the Federation Council on Tuesday evening, Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said, adding this was done “with the goal of normalizing and settling the situation in Ukraine’s eastern regions,” ahead of trilateral negotiations on resolving the conflict in Ukraine. Earlier the same day, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin expressed hope that the "positive signals that the president of the Russian Federation is sending" would be recognize by the international community and Kiev, paving the way for a genuine nationwide dialogue and a "mutually respectful search for solutions" to the crisis in Ukraine.

Chris Marsden ■ Monday’s air strikes by Israel on a regional military headquarters and eight other targets inside Syria were mounted on the pretext of the death of a teenager in a cross-border attack. [...] Israel’s real motive is an attempt to re-ignite conflicts in the Middle East that it hopes will undermine Iran and strengthen its own hand in dealings with Washington. The offensive in the Occupied Territories is being carried out following a reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas announced in April. This was meant to bring an end to the conflict that first erupted in 2007 that divided the Fatah-controlled West Bank from the Gaza strip, led by Hamas. Israel’s response to the agreement was bitterly hostile, and it suspended ongoing peace negotiations with the PA. US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki declared supportively, “It’s hard to see how Israel can be expected to negotiate with a government that does not believe in its right to exist.”

"Let me control the media and I will turn any nation into a herd of pigs" - Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels turned words into a weapon of mass destruction. Dangerous lies spread by the Nazi regime lead to brutal murders and cruelty that continue to shake minds. Join RT to examine some myths of the Goebbels propaganda that shaped the contours of the human catastrophe of WWII.

"There is no programme of mass surveillance and there is no surveillance state," Home Secretary Theresa May has said. Speaking at the Lord Mayor's Defence and Security Lecture at Mansion House, in the City of London, Mrs May dismissed recent criticism of the activities of the security services. Privacy campaigners have accused surveillance agency GCHQ of using "unlawful hacking" to spy on citizens. But Mrs May said this was "nonsense".

Sonja Bach and Christoph Dreier ■ Just weeks after celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the June 4, 1989 elections, which saw the Solidarity movement defeat the ruling Stalinist Communist Party, the Polish government faces a serious crisis. Its impetus was the publication of several recordings between high-ranking government representatives, throwing a spotlight on the economic and political situation in Poland. On Monday, the Polish magazine Wprost published excerpts from a private conversation between foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski and the former Polish finance minister Jan Vincent Rostowski (both members of Civic Platform, PO). In the recording, Poland’s most senior diplomat speaks disparagingly about the alliance with the United States in the most vulgar language. “You know,” said Sikorski, “the Polish-American alliance is not worth anything. It is even harmful because it creates a false feeling of security. Total bullshit. We argue with the Germans, with Russia, and we believe everything is great, just because we have given the Americans a blow job. Boneheads. Utter boneheads. The problem in Poland is that we have too little pride and too few feelings of self worth. So niggerly.” [...] The sharp conflicts within Poland’s ruling elite, which have broken out with the bugging affair, are developing against the background of a deep crisis. The putsch in Ukraine, which relied on fascists and was supported by the Polish government, has led to a civil war in the neighbouring country and has significantly destabilized the situation in Poland.

There are an estimated 30 million slaves in the world today, more than at any other time in history. In case you missed it, earlier this month Real Clear World ran a profile of what slave labor looks like in Pakistan today. There are 1.8 million “debt laborers” in the country, and 2.2 million slaves over all (only India and China have more). The debt laborers are kept under the thumb of landlords who sell them back and forth and cook up ways of keeping them in bondage.

Walk Free: It is estimated that 29.8 million people are forced to live in slavery around the world today

The world’s oceans need saving from pollution and overfishing, and an independent panel warned on Tuesday that urgent action was needed within five years. ● The Global Ocean Commission said cutting down on single-use plastics products, restricting fishing on the high seas, and establishing binding regulations for offshore oil and gas exploration are key parts of the rescue plan. In all, the former heads of state and business leaders offered eight proposals for ocean health in their report, “From Decline to Recovery – A Rescue Package for the Global Ocean.”

The Saker ■ When I heard this morning that Putin had asked the Federation Council to repeal the resolution on the use of Russian armed forces on the territory of Ukraine I was frankly baffled. Truly, I had not expected such a move. I had noticed yesterday that the so-called "consultations" (as opposed to "negotiations") between the Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, a senior representative for the OSCE Tagliavini, Ukraine's second president Kuchma, Ukrainian Choice movement leader Medvedchuk and the Donetsk People's Republuc's Prime Minister Borodai, South-East movement leader Tsaryov and representatives of the Lugansk People's Republic had resulted in the Novorussian leaders agreeing to a temporary cease-fire, but I did not expect that the situation would change so rapidly. Let's recall what was going on just a few days ago. - How did we get here?

Andrew Korybko ■ Ethnic and cultural cleansing in Ukraine [...] What Koval has proposed to do to the citizens of Donbass is completely illegal under international law and characterized as a crime against humanity. Forcible deporting and transferring a population, imprisoning them for no reason other than their address, and specifically targeting an ethnic and cultural group is explicitly forbidden under Article 7 of the Rome Statute. Perhaps because Yatsenyuk and others in his administration believe the protesters in the east to be “subhuman”, they do not feel that “human rights” apply to them. Accordingly, these “sub-humans” won’t have the right to their former property as well (due to the forcible resettlement), so it is likely that their homes and businesses will be the “free land” that Kiev has promised to its militant henchmen deployed in the east.

VoR: Military helicopter downed near Slavyansk
Itar-Tass: Self-proclaimed Donetsk, Lugansk republics adopt act on unification

Sergei Glazyev: On Eurofascism
Olga Chetverikova: A Fourth Reich is already under Construction in Ukraine