Of Goats and Men

Guest Post: Davos Shocked To Hear That Poor People Exist

2012-01-27T09:18:00.000-05:00

From Zerohedge.

Dystopia, the opposite of a utopia, describes a place where life is full of hardship and devoid of hope. Analysis of linkages across various global risks reveals a constellation of fiscal, demographic and societal risks signalling a dystopian future for much of humanity.

Reporters Without Borders - Press Freedom Index 2011-2012

2012-01-27T08:49:00.005-05:00

Norway first, Austria did surprisingly well at fifth place, and the 'leader of the free world' USA shares place 47 with Argentina and Romania

From Reporters Without Borders

"Insane. It's not ending!" Indeed.

2012-01-25T19:07:00.001-05:00

The world war on democracy

2012-01-21T13:48:00.002-05:00

A tremendously well written article.

From johnpilger.com

...Today, Diego Garcia is crucial to America's and Britain's war on democracy. The heaviest bombing of Iraq and Afghanistan was launched from its vast airstrips, beyond which the islanders' abandoned cemetery and church stand like archaeological ruins. The terraced garden where Lisette laughed for the camera is now a fortress housing the "bunker-busting" bombs carried by bat-shaped B-2 aircraft to targets in two continents; an attack on Iran will start here. As if to complete the emblem of rampant, criminal power, the CIA added a Guantanamo-style prison for its "rendition" victims and called it Camp Justice.
What was done to Lisette's paradise has an urgent and universal meaning, for it represents the violent, ruthless nature of a whole system behind its democratic facade, and the scale of our own indoctrination to its messianic assumptions, described by Harold Pinter as a "brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis." Longer and bloodier than any war since 1945, waged with demonic weapons and a gangsterism dressed as economic policy and sometimes known as globalisation, the war on democracy is unmentionable in western elite circles. As Pinter wrote, "it never happened even while it was happening"...

Read article in full...

Ron Paul Booed, then Cheered on 'Golden Rule' For Foreign Policy

2012-01-21T13:36:00.001-05:00

Maher On Paul

2012-01-20T15:58:00.001-05:00

NDAA Floor Speech Jan 18 2012

2012-01-18T17:23:00.000-05:00

White House locked down by 'smoke bomb attack.'

2012-01-18T11:37:00.004-05:00

No shots of the claimed 'smoke bomb.' Could it be...just another lie by a corporate police state scared of its own people?

Lieberman: Let's do it like they do it in the Republic of China!

2012-01-18T11:00:00.002-05:00

Chris Hedges Sues Obama Administration Over National Defense Authorization Act

2012-01-18T10:59:00.001-05:00

Ron Paul - War Propaganda

2012-01-12T09:31:00.000-05:00

U.S. Marines Urinating On Taliban Dead Bodies In AFG

2012-01-12T07:50:00.000-05:00

Madness...

2012-01-12T04:45:00.003-05:00

“What must we do to win [against Islam]? We must educate, engage, evangelize and eradicate.” - Rick Santorum

What Chase & Goldman Sachs did to Greece

2012-01-09T03:41:00.002-05:00

An alternative explanation for europe's fiscal problems different then the commonly heard ' the greeks are lazy and they retire too early'...

From America Blog.

In other words, banks like Chase and Goldman knowingly larded up the nation of Greece with a crippling future debt burden, then turned around and helped the world bet against Greek debt. ... [D]oes a human being do that deal?

Operations like the Greek swap/short index maneuver were easy money for banks like Goldman and Chase – hell, it’s a no-lose play, like cutting a car’s brake lines and then betting on the driver to crash – but they helped create the monstrous European debt problem that this very minute is threatening to send the entire world economy into collapse, which would result in who knows what horrors.
The world of propaganda news — the world of "what everyone knows" (the propagandist's best friend) — won't change because you now know what the bankers did to Greece.

Yes, the government was eagerly corrupted. But an addict needs a seducer, a leech, an enabler, someone to bleed his wallet in trade for his supply. That leech, that predator, is the international branch of the U.S. banking system.

It's the leech that caused the crisis in Greece; and the leech that marketed the evils of one bad addict as the reason the entire continent needs to go on food stamps for a generation or so.

Sweet deal, being a banker. Sort of a racket, wouldn't you say? On some planet, they call it organized crime. On others they call it a public-private partnership.

Either way it's looting.

Read more...

Phil Donahue on Ron Paul & Foreign Policy

2012-01-07T08:10:00.001-05:00

Just A Video I Found On YouTube.

2012-01-06T09:33:00.001-05:00

"Israel is more then capable of....Blitzer: We just lost our tech connection...'"

2012-01-04T10:59:00.002-05:00

Yeah sure you did Wolf.

FBI Says Activists Who Investigate Factory Farms Can Be Prosecuted as Terrorists

2011-12-22T17:25:00.002-05:00

From Green Is The New Red.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has kept files on activists who expose animal welfare abuses on factory farms and recommended prosecuting them as terrorists, according to a new document uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act.

Read more...

The Al Qaeda Insurgency in Syria: Recruiting Jihadists to Wage NATO's "Humanitarian Wars"

2011-12-22T17:20:00.001-05:00

From Global Research.

What triggered the crisis in Syria?

It was not the result of internal political cleavages, but rather the consequence of a deliberate plan by the US-NATO alliance to trigger social chaos, to discredit the Syrian government of Bashar Al Assad and ultimately destabilize Syria as a Nation State.

Since the middle of March 2011, Islamist armed groups covertly supported by Western and Israeli intelligence have conducted terrorist attacks on government buildings and acts of arson.

Amply documented, trained gunmen and snipers have targeted the police, the armed forces as well as unarmed civilians.

The objective of this armed insurrection is to trigger the response of the police and armed forces, including the deployment of tanks and armored vehicles with a view to eventually justifying a "humanitarian" military intervention, under NATO's "responsibility to protect" mandate.

Read more...

New Photos Released of Iraq Atrocity, With Documents and Video

2011-12-19T00:49:00.004-05:00

From War Is A Crime.

In June of 2007 1SG Spry caused an Iraqi male to be stopped, questioned, detained, and killed. We had no evidence that the Iraqi was an insurgent or terrorist. In any event when we stopped he did not pose a threat. Although I did not personally witness the killing, I did observe 1sg Spry dismembering the body and parading of it while it was tied to the hood of a Humvee around the Muhalla neighborhood while the interpreter blared out warnings in Arabic over the loud speaker. I have a photo that shows 1SG Spry removing the victim’s brains.

On another occasion an Iraqi male was stopped by a team led by Sgt Rogers as he walked down an alleyway. The Iraqi was detained and questioned then with his hands tied behind his back, SGT Rogers skinned his face.

1ST Spry shot a young Iraqi teenager who was about 16 years old. The shooting was unprovoked and the Iraqi posed no threat to the unit. He was merely riding his bicycle past an ambush site. When I arrived on the scene I observed 1SGT Spry along with SSG Platt dismember the boy’s body.

I highly recommend watching this extremely disturbing video. I must warn however that the last ten minutes especially are grim. Nonetheless it is real and should be seen.

Jon Stewart blasts Congress, Obama over terror bill

2011-12-18T15:59:00.001-05:00

From Salon

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Obama Administation Specifically Asked For End To Rule Of Law In America...

2011-12-14T21:01:00.004-05:00

And you think I am a radical? Guess again...

From RT.

From Politico

President Barack Obama does not plan to veto a defense bill seeking to direct more terrorism suspects into military custody, the White House signaled Wednesday afternoon.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement that changes lawmakers made to the legislation to accomodate White House concerns were sufficient to avoid a veto. The statement was issued just before the House was expected to vote on the conferenced House-Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act.

What changes? To INCLUDE Americans under those who can be put away without trial and the key thrown away....Change you will HAVE TO believe in.

This Is What Your ATM Will Look Like During a Bank Panic Video

2011-12-13T03:49:00.002-05:00

From SHTFplan.com

Thousands of Latvians lined up at bank counters and ATMs over the weekend in an attempt to withdraw their savings from Swedbank, the country’s largest banking institution.

As rumors of imminent collapse began to build due to the bank’s reported liquidity problems in Estonia and Sweden, Latvians panicked and headed for their cash. This was the scene outside of numerous ATM’s in Latvia’s capital city, Riga:

There are various reasons for why a bank run may occur in the U.S., but the overwhelming driving mechanism will be panic. Once the public realizes that a particular insititution can’t make good on its debt or the country’s currency goes into a death spiral, depositors will be out in droves. ATMs will be limited on cash and generally allow withdrawals of about $300 per day. Likewise, banks will simply not have enough money to pay out the entire account balance of every depositor, so they will more than likely implement withdrawal restrictions similar to what you might get from an ATM.

At that point, the future of your finances will fall into the hands of the federal government by way of the FDIC, which itself is wholly under-capitalized and unable to effectively cover the deposits of a single major U.S. bank, let alone the entire banking system...

Bugsplat.

2011-12-12T15:46:00.004-05:00

"The term bugsplat is used by the United States military for civilians that get killed in drone attacks..."

From Tribune.

During his stay in Pakistan, Clark plans to collect photographs of places that have been affected in the war against terror, particularly by drone attacks, says a statement issued by Reprieve and interact with local artists from Pakistan, whereas Bernard is currently researching on “an unholy alliance between technology, war and capitalism” with a grant awarded to her by the UK Arts Council. The artists also plan to interview people from Waziristan.

The term bugsplat is used by the United States military for civilians that get killed in drone attacks and has been used in the title to highlight the damage done by the drones.

Rare Photographs Show Ground Zero of the Drone War

From Wired.

The epicenter of global terrorism, and the CIA's highly classified drone war against extremist groups, is a black hole on the map -- a region of Pakistan off limits to outsiders, and especially Westerners. It’s an area so dangerous that even the Pakistani military avoids it. The CIA may have launched 70 drone strikes in tribal Pakistan in 2011 alone. But Americans, like the rest of the world, have no idea what the area looks like, or who lives there.

One resident of North Waziristan wants to expose the conflict. Noor Behram has spent years photographing the aftermath of drone strikes, often at personal risk. Working with Islamabad lawyer Shahzad Akbar and London-based human rights activist Clive Stafford Smith, who are helping get his photos to the outside world, Behram provided Danger Room with dozens of his images, none of which have ever been published in the United States.

See article and gallery.

Goldman Target of ’Occupy’ West Coast Protests

2011-12-12T11:39:00.001-05:00

From Bloomberg.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), the fifth- biggest U.S. bank by assets, is a major target of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators who plan to blockade ports from Anchorage to San Diego to cut into profits of the company they blame for helping spur the financial crisis.

“They represent the greed of the corporate elite, the 1 percent that’s causing ruin for everybody else,” Michael Novick, a member of Occupy Los Angeles, said of Goldman Sachs in a Dec. 7 telephone interview. The Occupy movement’s slogan is, “We are the 99 percent.”

Demonstrators today hope to disrupt the largest U.S. and Canadian container ports -- Los Angeles, Long Beach and Vancouver -- as well as Anchorage; Seattle and Tacoma, Washington; Portland, Oregon, and San Diego and Oakland, California. The economic value of containerized cargo at West Coast ports is about $705 million a day, according to Martin Associates in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Los Angeles protesters circulated a flyer -- “Occupy the Ports! A Day Without Goldman Sachs!” -- featuring a caricature of Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein steering a ship loaded with bags of money. The company is part-owner of Carrix Inc., whose SSA Marine provides cargo handling services as the largest U.S.-owned container terminal operator.
Andrea Raphael, a spokeswoman for the New York-based bank, declined to comment on the protest.

Report: Air Force dumped remains of 274 troops in landfill

2011-12-09T03:32:00.002-05:00

His words not mine. Be careful who you serve.

"Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy."
Henry Kissinger, as quoted in "The Final Days" by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in chapter 14. Page 194 in the paperback version (1995).

From MSN

The incinerated partial remains of at least 274 American troops were dumped in a Virginia landfill, according to government records, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

Air Force officials said that the dumping was hidden from families who had given authorization for the remains to be disposed of in a respectful and dignified manner, according to the newspaper.

There were no plans to inform families, officials told the newspaper.

FOX, lies & the wrong videotape: What’s NOT happening in Moscow

2011-12-08T09:40:00.001-05:00

I can't even look at Hillary Clinton anymore...luckily she appears only for a couple seconds in this video.

From RT

Was Dominique Strauss-Kahn Trying to Torpedo the Dollar?

2011-12-08T06:17:00.013-05:00

This article was written back in May, but I find it to be a plausible explanation which ties together just a few loose ends....if you mess with the dollar, they mess with you, just like they did with Strauss Kahn, Saddam, and Gadaffi...It also might explain why the gruesome death of Gadaffi was televised so blatantly all over the world: as a message to anyone who threatens to rock the 'U.S. Dollar boat', this is what you get.

From Global Research.

...So, Strauss-Kahn finds himself in the same crowd as Saddam Hussein and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, right? You may recall that Saddam switched from dollars to euros about a year before the war. 12 months later Iraq was invaded, Saddam was hanged, and the dollar was restored to power. Gaddafi made a similar mistake when "he initiated a movement to refuse the dollar and the euro, and called on Arab and African nations to use a new currency instead, the gold dinar." ("Libya: All About Oil, or All About Central Banking?" Ellen Brown, Op-Ed News) Libya has since come under attack by US and NATO forces which have armed a motley group of dissidents, malcontents and terrorists to depose Gaddafi and reimpose dollar hegemony.

And now it's Strauss-Kahn's turn to get torn to shreds. And for good reason. After all, DSK actually poses a much greater threat to the dollar than either Saddam or Gaddafi because he's in the perfect position to shape policy and to persuade foreign heads of state that replacing the dollar is in their best interests. And that is precisely what he was doing; badmouthing the buck. Only he was too dense to figure out that the dollar is the US Mafia's mealticket, the main way that shifty banksters and corporate scalawags extort tribute from the poorest people on earth. Strauss-Kahn was rocking the boat, and now he's going to pay...

Read more...

But that's not all...as we learn from the next article by Thierry Meysan

First of all on March 29, 2009, the governor of the Chinese Central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, called into question the domination of the dollar as international reserve currency. Deploring the fact that economist John Maynard Keynes' project to create an international currency (Bancor) was not carried out at the end of the Second World War, he proposed using the the IMF's Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to play this part [10].

Yielding to the pressure, the United States accepts a tripling of IMF resources and the emission by the IMF of Special Drawing Rights of a value of 250 billion dollars at the time of the G20 summit in London on April 2, 2009. They also accept the principle of a Financial Stability Council with which the biggest emerging nations will be associated.

The idea is discussed at the G8 summit at Aquila (Italy) on July 8, 2009. Pushing the pawn further still, Russia showed itself unsatisfied with a virtual world currency and actually minted one. Dmitry Medevedev, who had had some symbolic prototypes of this currency struck, placed some coins on the table. One side showed the eight heads of state while the other read "Unity in Diversity," in English[11].

The project is submitted to the experts of the UN's Division of Economic and Social Affairs. Their report, in which professor Vladimir Popov of Moscow's New Economic School takes part, is studied at a meeting of the IMF and the World Bank on April 25, 2010 [12].

The process was to finish today, May 26, 2011, at the G8 summit in Deauville (France). The dollar would have ceased being the currency of reference due to the imminent suspension of payments by the federal government of the United States. Washington would have to have given up financing its military hyper-power with debt to instead devote itself to internal reorganization.

The Libyan dinar, first (and last?) currency in the world guaranteed by gold and IMF Special Drawing Rights. In 2000, Colonel Kadhafi talked of creating a Panafrican currency based on gold but never managed to advance the idea. In 2009 he unilaterally adopted the Zhou project for his country.

The grain of sand

Unfortunately, in the last months of this process, military and political initiatives upset this plan. Certain states - of which Russia and China - were swindled. The arrest of DSK shows that Washington was insincere and that its concessions were only aimed at saving time.

Although the exact details of the mechanics imagined by Dominique Strauss-Kahn to create this new reserve currency backed by IMF Special Drawing Rights is secret, it appears that Libya played a key role there: it was the Libyan Central bank which first decided to base its currency, the dinar, on gold and the SDRs, on an experimental basis. The thing is all the more important as Libya has among the most well endowed sovereign funds in the world (even a little richer than Russia's).

In waging war on Libya, France and the United Kingdom caused a theoretical freezing of assets not only of the Kadhafi family, but also of the Libyan state. Worse, Paris and London dispatched executives of the HSBC bank to Benghazi to create a rebel Libyan Central bank and to try to seize the country's national assets [13]. Without knowing whether Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron let themselves be carried away with their power or acted on instructions from Washington, the fragile edifice worked out by Dominique Strauss-Kahn has crumbled.

According to our contacts in Tripoli, at the time of his arrest, DSK was on his way to Berlin to find a solution with the chancellor Angela Merkel. He was then due to leave with an emissary of Mrs. Merkel's to negotiate with representatives of Colonel Kadhafi - even with him directly - the Libyan leader's signature being essential to the unblocking of the situation.

We are watching unfold a financial war of unprecedented scale; whereas the economic situation of the United States is unstable and the dollar could quickly become a worthless currency, the agreement concluded at the G8 and endorsed by the G20, implemented by the IMF in coordination with the World Bank and the international banking milieu whose champion was DSK, is now suspended. The domination of the dollar is intact though more than ever artificial; this dollar that the emerging nations wanted to marginalize, but upon which the US-Israeli military-industrial complex bases its power.

In that context, what is one man's honor worth ?

Army National Guardsman Tells About Iraq...

2011-12-06T06:35:00.003-05:00

COMFORTABLY NUMB

2011-12-06T06:31:00.002-05:00

From The Burning Platform.

As I observe the zombie like reactions of Americans to our catastrophic economic highway to collapse, the continued plundering and pillaging of the national treasury by criminal Wall Street bankers, non-enforcement of existing laws against those who committed the largest crime in history, and reaction to young people across the country getting beaten, bludgeoned, shot with tear gas and pepper sprayed by police, I can’t help but wonder whether there is anyone home. Why are most Americans so passively accepting of these calamitous conditions? How did we become so comfortably numb? I’ve concluded Americans have chosen willful ignorance over thoughtful critical thinking due to their own intellectual laziness and overpowering mind manipulation by the elite through their propaganda emitting media machines. Some people are awaking from their trance, but the vast majority is still slumbering or fuming at erroneous perpetrators.

Both the Tea Party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement are a reflection of the mood change in the country, which is a result of government overreach, political corruption, dysfunctional economic policies, and a financial system designed to enrich the few while defrauding the many. The common theme is anger, frustration and disillusionment with a system so badly broken it appears unfixable through the existing supposedly democratic methods. The system has been captured by an oligarchy of moneyed interests from the financial industry, mega-corporations, and military industrial complex, protected by their captured puppets in Washington DC and sustained by the propaganda peddling corporate media. The differences in political parties are meaningless as they each advocate big government solutions to all social, economic, foreign relations, and monetary issues...

Read more...

The shadow war in Syria

2011-12-02T22:01:00.003-05:00

As scene two of 'Operation Bash and Trash' begins now in Syria, I'm back with Pepe Escobar again, as he introduces the important players...

From Asia Times.

THE ROVING EYE
The shadow war in Syria
By Pepe Escobar

Target Syria - the strategic prize that outstrips Libya. The stage is set. The stakes couldn't be higher. Libya 2.0 equals Syria? It's more like Libya 2.0 remix. With the same R2P (''responsibility to protect'') rationale - starring civilians bombed into ''democracy''. But with no UN Security Council resolution (Russia and China will veto it). Instead, Turkey shines, fanning the flames of civil war.

US Secretary of State Hillary ''we came, we saw, he died'' Clinton set the scene on Indonesian TV a few weeks ago, when she prophesied there would be ''a civil war'' in Syria, with a well financed and ''well-armed opposition'' crammed with army deserters.

Now it's up to NATOGCC to make it happen...

Read more...

Syria: NATO Genocide Approaches

2011-11-30T06:18:00.004-05:00

From Land Destroyer Report.

UN Syria Report Co-Authored by Director of US Corporate Think-Tank
by Tony Cartalucci

November 30, 2011

Blatant lies told by alleged "human rights activists" led to ignominious NATO-sanctioned brutality and ultimately brought BP, Shell, Total-sponsored Petroleum Institute representative, Abdurrahim el-Keib, into power in Libya. Now, these same corporate-financier interests, through their same networks of propaganda, duplicity and deception, are laying the ground work for a repeat performance in Syria...

Read more...

Clinton tells developing world to be wary of donors

2011-11-30T01:27:00.003-05:00

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black...

From Reuters

(Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged developing nations on Wednesday to be "smart shoppers" on foreign aid, warning that powerful emerging economies such as China may be more interested in exploiting natural resources than promoting real development.

Read more...

Should probably be read in conjunction with articles like these:

American Companies Exploit The Congo.

The Big Oil Grab In Libya

New questions raised over Dominique-Strauss Kahn case

2011-11-28T02:13:00.002-05:00

It's getting pretty obvious that Strauss Kahn was set up, most likely by Sarkozy. Not that such a thing should surprise anyone.

From The Guardian.

New questions have been raised about the events in the New York hotel room where the former International Monetary Fund head and French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn was alleged to have sexually assaulted a hotel maid.

The case against Strauss-Kahn was eventually dramatically dropped by a Manhattan court, but the scandal forced him to resign his IMF post and destroyed his chances of becoming the leading leftwing candidate to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidency.

An exhaustively researched article in the New York Review of Books, published by veteran American investigative journalist Edward Jay Epstein, has cast fresh doubt on exactly what happened in the Sofitel hotel room on 14 May between Strauss-Kahn and his accuser, Guinean-born maid Nafissatou Diallo.

In passages sure to delight Strauss-Kahn supporters and conspiracy theorists, Epstein's lengthy article studied hotel door key and phone records and traced links to Strauss-Kahn's potential political rivals, appearing to suggest the possibility that he had been set up.

Read more...

Congress to Vote Next Week on EXPLICITLY Creating a Police State

2011-11-28T00:42:00.005-05:00

From Washington's Blog.

The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world.

***

The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself...

Anyone who … speaks out against the government’s policies could be declared an “unlawful enemy combatant” and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes American citizens.

Obama has refused to reverse these practices.

And see also here...where you can write an email to your senators quickly and easily on the ACLU website.

From ACLU

The U.S. Senate is considering the unthinkable: changing detention laws to imprison people — including Americans living in the United States itself — indefinitely and without charge.

The Defense Authorization bill — a "must-pass" piece of legislation — is headed to the Senate floor with troubling provisions that would give the President — and all future presidents — the authority to indefinitely imprison people, without charge or trial, both abroad and inside the United States.

"The Biggest Crisis Ever In The History Of Capitalism"

2011-11-26T05:58:00.001-05:00

7,000 held in Libya's new reign of fear and torture

2011-11-24T06:47:00.005-05:00

And introducing, from the people who brought you the wars of Iraq, and Afghanistan, what all the experts have been waiting for, the one and only...Liberated Libya!

From The Daily Mail.

Thousands of people including women and children are being held illegally and tortured by rebels who helped oust Colonel Gaddafi, according to a UN report.
Around 7,000, many of them foreigners, are behind bars in private prisons and makeshift detention centres, beyond the control of the new Libyan government and without access to any legal redress.
The report by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will be embarrassing for Britain and other governments which supported the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime despite concerns about who would take power in their place.

Many of the detainees are sub-Saharan Africans whom their captors accuse of being Gaddafi mercenaries, based in some cases purely on the fact that they have darker skin. The women and children are being held with them, under the control of male-only guards.
‘Some detainees have reportedly been subjected to torture or ill treatment,’ the UN said.

Read more...

And Here Is Your Thanksgiving...

2011-11-24T03:23:00.004-05:00

From Zerohedge

Earlier today, we presented the latest developments in the escalating possibility of an imminent air (and potentially land) campaign targeting Syria by the "western world", a move that would infuriate not only Iran, but also Russia and China, both of which have made it clear they would not sit idly by and let such an "aggression" stand. Now it is Russia's turn to retaliate. Cutting straight to the chase - in a nationally televized appearance by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev: in response to what the Russian believes is an active incursion and a potential act of eventual aggression on behalf of NATO countries in Eastern Europe (and hence the US), he he said the following (7 minutes in): "First, I am instructing the Defense Ministry to immediately put the missile attack early warning radar station in Kaliningrad on combat alert. Second, protective cover of Russia's strategic nuclear weapons, will be reinforced as a priority measure under the programme to develop out air and space defenses. Third, the new strategic ballistic missiles commissioned by the Strategic Missile Forces and the Navy will be equipped with advanced missile defense penetration systems and new highly-effective warheads. Fourth, I have instructed the Armed Forces to draw up measures for disabling missile defense system data and guidance systems if need be... Fifth, if the above measures prove insufficient, the Russian Federation will deploy modern offensive weapon systems in the west and south of the country, ensuring our ability to take out any part of the US missile defense system, in Europe. One step in this process will be to deploy Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad Region. Other measures to counter the European missile defense system will be drawn up and implemented as necessary. Furthermore, if the situation continues to develop not in Russia's favor we reserve the right to discontinue further disarmament and arms control measures. Besides, given the intrinsic link between strategic offensive and defensive arms, conditions for our withdrawal from the New START Treaty could also arise." That said, he concludes that Russia is still open to dialog. However, if Obama merely intends to bomb any nation at will, we are very much concerned that everything Medvedev has just threatened will be enacted. And exponentially more so when Putin comes back in charge. One thing is certain - Russia is not North Korea, and taking this speech for more empty jawboning is probably not the wisest option.

One comment on this Zerohedge article nicely sums it up:

This is all part of a greater game: America and the West are locked in a proxy war with the Eurasian autocracies (Pakistan, Russia, Iran, China — for short, the PRICs) for both Eurasia’s huge resources and manpower, and global military and financial supremacy. American policy is to retain the petrodollar-standard, and continue enjoying the free lunch such a system yields.

Russia and China don't want to fight a physical war. They want to fight (and win) the ongoing trade war, and degrade America's superpower status slowly and surely. And in that regard they are winning. That's why a military-industrial complex patsy like Romney is so dangerous. Plutocrats want their free lunches.

Read more and watch video...

Ron Paul: Talking Sense In A World Run By Madmen

2011-11-24T03:19:00.002-05:00

The Hypocrisy - Libya, Syria, Iran and USA

2011-11-22T00:07:00.000-05:00

From Live Leak

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.

2011-11-21T21:26:00.001-05:00

From OWS.

New York Cops Arrest “Osama Hussein” in Bomb Plot

2011-11-21T01:52:00.004-05:00

Hey Bloomberg want to buy the Brooklyn Bridge? I'll sell it to you for a dollar.

From Infowars.

Now that Mayor Bloomberg and the New York cops have uprooted OWS, it’s time for some real action – tracking down would-be lone wolf terrorist synthesizers.

Read more...

Lobbying firm's memo spells out plan to undermine 'Occupy Wall Street'

2011-11-20T10:06:00.001-05:00

Sectarian Strife in City Bodes Ill for All of Syria

2011-11-20T06:08:00.001-05:00

Bill Keller is no longer editor of The New York Times. The articles are improving there now.

From The New York Times.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A harrowing sectarian war has spread across the Syrian city of Homs this month, with supporters and opponents of the government blamed for beheadings, rival gangs carrying out tit-for-tat kidnappings, minorities fleeing for their native villages, and taxi drivers too fearful of drive-by shootings to ply the streets.

Occupy Oakland: Iraq war veteran Kayvan Sabehgi beaten by police - video

2011-11-19T09:04:00.002-05:00

Meanwhile Peace Laureate Obama, Hilary and their think-tank friends are trying to figure out how to overthrow Syria and Iran, they claim in order to 'help the peaceful protestors' over there. The hypocrisy is reaching absurd levels.

OWS Day of Action : Over 400 arrested, dozens injured.

2011-11-18T06:27:00.000-05:00

Obama Prosecuting Fewer Financial Crimes Than Under Reagan or Either Bush

2011-11-17T06:30:00.001-05:00

From Washington's Blog.

Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton Each Prosecuted Financial Crime More Aggressively than Obama

IISS: Syria's Opposition Is Armed

2011-11-17T03:42:00.001-05:00

From Land Destroyer Report

Placard-Waving Protesters are actually Machine Gun-Wielding Terrorists.
by Tony Cartalucci

November 15, 2011 - The "Free Syria Army" is literally an army of militant extremists, many drawn not from Syria's military ranks, but from the Muslim Brotherhood, carrying heavy weapons back and forth over the Turkish and Lebanese borders, funded, supported, and armed by the United States, Israel, and Turkey. The latest evidence confirming this comes in the form of a report out of the International Institute for Strategic Studies where Senior Fellow for Regional Security at IISS-Middle East Emile Hokayem openly admits Syria's opposition is armed and prepared to drag Syria's violence into even bloodier depths.

This report comes in sharp contrast to the propaganda fed via the corporate-media and the West's foreign ministers on a daily basis, where the violence is portrayed as one-sided, with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad "gunning down" throngs of peaceful, placard waving protesters.

Read more...

Homeland Security Coordinated 18-City Police Crackdown on Occupy Protest

2011-11-16T06:37:00.003-05:00

Not mentioned however is that the crackdown was worldwide from most reports I've heard and not just national. The issue here, is that though we may be removing through military force one dictator here and one dictator there, there is a danger that in the end we will be left with one giant, militarized police/surveillance/economic empire against which there are little if any democratic forces left to keep it in check and maintain individual rights, or economic freedom against the power of the international corporations, banks and the centralized power of their international government. In the end I believe the project will fail, but that doesn't mean it isn't underway.

From Washington's Blog.

Remember when people were freaking out over the Patriot Act and Homeland Security and all this other conveniently ready-to-go post-9/11 police state stuff, because it would obviously be just a matter of time before the whole apparatus was turned against non-Muslim Americans when they started getting complain-y about the social injustice and economic injustice and income inequality and endless recession and permanent unemployment? That day is now, and has been for some time. But it’s also now confirmed that it’s now, as some Justice Department official screwed up and admitted that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated the riot-cop raids on a dozen major #Occupy Wall Street demonstration camps nationwide yesterday and today...

...Over the past ten days, more than a dozen cities have moved to evict “Occupy” protesters from city parks and other public spaces. As was the case in last night’s move in New York City, each of the police actions shares a number of characteristics. And according to one Justice official, each of those actions was coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies.

Do the bomb Iran shuffle

2011-11-14T13:28:00.003-05:00

From Asia Times.

THE ROVING EYE
Do the bomb Iran shuffle
By Pepe Escobar

Get ready for a flurry of fuzzy satellite ''intelligence'' of generic warehouses all across Iran frantically described as segments of a nuclear bomb assembly line (Remember a famous ''secret nuclear facility'' in Syria not long ago? It was a textile factory.)

Get ready for a flurry of crude diagrams depicting suspect devices, or the containers that hide them, all capable of reaching Europe in 45 minutes.

Get ready for a flurry of ''experts'' on Fox, CNN and the BBC endlessly dissecting all this extended black ops dressed up as ''evidence''. For instance, former UN weapons inspector David Albright, now at the Institute for Science and International
Security (ISIS), has already pulled his return of the living dead stunt, displaying his ''bomb Iran'' credentials complete with diagrams and satellite intel.

Forget Iraq - it's sooo 2003. Hit the new groove; hyping overdrive for the war on Iran.

First of all, ditch common sense.

If Iran were developing a nuclear weapon, it would be diverting uranium for it. The report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this week - as politicized as it may be - flatly denies it.

If Iran were developing a nuclear weapon, UN inspectors working for the IAEA would have been thrown out of the country.

Iraq did not have a nuclear weapons program in 2002. And yet it was shocked and awed. The same rationale applies to Iran.

What Tehran may have conducted - if the compromised intel used in the IAEA report is to be believed - is a bunch of experiments and computer simulations. Everybody does it - for instance countries which have renounced the bomb, such as Brazil and South Africa.

What the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) - in charge of the civilian nuclear program - certainly wants is a deterrent.

That is, the possibility of building up a nuclear bomb in case they face an unequivocally established threat of regime change, provoked, most likely, by a US attack and invasion.

Read more...

'Gaddafi couldn't kill more people than NATO did' - Syrian deputy FM

2011-11-13T08:39:00.001-05:00

Libya Says Oil Output Can Reach 800,000 Barrels by End 2011

2011-11-13T08:35:00.001-05:00

From Bloomberg

Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Libya, the holder of Africa’s biggest oil reserves, will produce as much as 800,000 barrels of crude a day by the end of this year, the chairman of state-run National Oil Corp. said.

Libya’s oil industry will recover more quickly than the International Energy Agency predicted after suffering disruptions this year amid fighting that engulfed the country, Nuri Berruien said today in an interview in Doha, Qatar. The nation currently pumps 600,000 barrels a day, he said, adding in comments to reporters that authorities will not award licenses to energy companies during its political transition after the death of Muammar Qaddafi.

How the War on Terror Militarized the Police

2011-11-13T06:58:00.001-05:00

From Reader Supported News.

Over the past 10 years, law enforcement officials have begun to look and act more and more like soldiers. Here's why we should be alarmed."

At around 9:00 a.m. on May 5, 2011, officers with the Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff's Department's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team surrounded the home of 26-year-old José Guerena, a former US Marine and veteran of two tours of duty in Iraq, to serve a search warrant for narcotics. As the officers approached, Guerena lay sleeping in his bedroom after working the graveyard shift at a local mine. When his wife Vanessa woke him up, screaming that she had seen a man outside the window pointing a gun at her, Guerena grabbed his AR-15 rifle, instructed Vanessa to hide in the closet with their four-year-old son, and left the bedroom to investigate.

Within moments, and without Guerena firing a shot - or even switching his rifle off of "safety" - he lay dying, his body riddled with 60 bullets. A subsequent investigation revealed that the initial shot that prompted the SWAT team barrage came from a SWAT team gun, not Guerena's. Guerena, reports later revealed, had no criminal record, and no narcotics were found at his home.

Sadly, the Guerenas are not alone; in recent years we have witnessed a proliferation in incidents of excessive, military-style force by police SWAT teams, which often make national headlines due to their sheer brutality. Why has it become routine for police departments to deploy black-garbed, body-armored SWAT teams for routine domestic police work? The answer to this question requires a closer examination of post-9/11 US foreign policy and the War on Terror...

Read more...

Big Banks Plead with Customers Not to Move Their Money

2011-11-09T13:32:00.002-05:00

From Washington's Blog

At Wells Fargo, my sister walked up to the teller and politely asked to close her account. The teller said, “No problem.” She pulled up her account and saw the balance and told her that due to the amount she had to speak with the branch manager. The branch manager came out. He was probably 30 years old and was very arrogant. He asked my sister why she wanted to close her account and my sister told him she thought Wells Fargo was part of the problem with the economy. He went thru some talking points about why she shouldn’t move her money, but my sister didn’t back down. When he asked her where she was going she told him that she would be banking at the North Carolina State Employees Credit Union. She isn’t a state employee, but anyone can join if you are related to a state employee. It turns out her husband is. Anyway, the bankster told her “You’ll be back. Credit unions can’t provide the services you need.” We’ll see about that. She withdrew over $200k from Wells Fargo.

And another bank employer told someone else who wanted to move out of the big banks that management is concerned:

She shared that management is nervous, they are seeing money leaking out of the bank and realize that they have made mistakes…. They are also aware of the growing momentum behind the November 5th move your money movement.

Local Governments, Churches, Community Groups, Prominent Business Men And Others Are All Divesting From Big, Corrupt Banks

At least 650,000 consumers have already joined credit unions since Sept. 29 … to a nationwide survey of credit unions by the Credit Union National Association. That amounts to $4.5 billion in new savings accounts, CUNA said.

Oil Executive: Military-Style 'Psy Ops' Experience Applied

2011-11-09T04:46:00.002-05:00

From CNBC

It was a gathering of professionals to discuss “media and stakeholder relations” in the hydraulic fracturing industry — companies using the often-controversial oil and gas extraction technique known as “fracking.”

But things took an unexpected twist.

CNBC has obtained audiotapes of the event, on which one presenter can be heard recommending that his colleagues download a copy of the Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency manual.

That’s because, he said, the opposition facing the industry is an “insurgency.”

Another told attendees that his company has several former military psychological operations, or “psy ops” specialists on staff, applying their skills in Pennsylvania.

Go hear to read more and hear audio clips.

Power comes from barrel of a gun in post-Gaddafi Libya

2011-11-08T06:30:00.002-05:00

From The Independent.

Abdul Mojan's moment of realisation came when the people he thought were the good guys threw him into the boot of their car, slammed it shut and drove off with him a prisoner inside.

When they finally stopped and hauled him out, he asked: "What are you doing? I'm a revolutionary just like you. I've never supported Gaddafi."

But the former rebels did not care. They had taken a liking to the new office block in western Tripoli that Mr Mojan managed and they wanted the keys and ownership documents.

"We have sacrificed for this revolution and you haven't, and now we will take what we want," he was told by a cocky 18-year-old. "You can have the building back when the revolution is over."

A week later Mr Mojan was still incredulous as he recounted his tale, admitting that he felt lucky to escape without a beating, although there was nothing he could do about the 5,000 dinar (€2,960) they stole from his car.

Many of Tripoli's residents have had a similar moment of grim awakening in recent weeks. Their liberators, still swaggering around the city in Che Guevara-style berets and armed to the teeth, have not gone back to their home towns as they promised. Nor have they handed in the guns they used to topple Gaddafi.

"When they said 'Libya free', they meant the cars, the refrigerators and the flat-screen television sets," runs one joke in Tripoli's cafes. There are also stories of gunmen taking expensive cars at checkpoints, giving receipts and saying they will be returned after the revolution.

More alarming than the looting have been the armed clashes between militias.

There have been three big fights in the capital alone in the past week; shoot-outs at a hospital, Martyr's Square and the military airport, which have left several dead and dozens wounded.

Then there are the detentions. With the fighting over, the revolutionaries have kept busy, rounding up hundreds of suspected Gaddafi supporters in a widescale witch-hunt, often on the basis of little more than rumour and accusation.

Less healthcare, but Greece is still buying guns

2011-11-07T08:52:00.000-05:00

From The Independent.

As Greece is forced by European leaders to abandon a referendum to allow the people the chance to vote on its latest bailout conditions, the country is preparing for yet another dose of austerity.

The conditions of the next €130bn rescue package will be severe, yet there is an elephant in the room: the extent to which the German but also the French military industries rely on Greece.

The small, crisis-hit nation, whose prime minister, George Papandreou, narrowly survived a vote of confidence on Friday, buys more German weapons than any other country. Some Greeks want to know why it is that France and Germany are demanding cuts in pensions, salaries and public services, but the buying of arms is allowed to continue unabated.

Yanis Varoufakis, professor of economics at Athens University, says: "When Greek hospitals are running out of bandages, the only bit of the budget not being attacked by the EU and IMF is military expenditure."

Shot by police with rubber bullet at Occupy Oakland

2011-11-07T08:37:00.004-05:00

The friendly face of America. As I've said before, forget about Gaza, that's now where you live.

From Max Keiser. "Sell America short… Make big bucks as this turd gets flushed."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Pro-Israeli Lobby Group Made BBC, Sky News ‘Change Narrative’ On Stories

2011-11-07T07:40:00.001-05:00

From Prison Planet.

Ahead of a widely-expected Israeli-led attack on Iran, Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, an elitist pro-Israeli lobbying firm, has been caught “briefing” the British mainstream media on how to present news items relating to Israel, bragging in a leaked email of how BBC and Sky News editors “changed their narrative” on stories after meeting with BICOM representatives.

Aussie soldiers shot by Afghan officer

2011-11-07T07:28:00.002-05:00

From Yahoo

Three Australian diggers have been killed in Afghanistan by a local soldier who opened fire while they were on parade.

Ron Paul: US Should Offer Friendship To Iran Not War 2011

2011-11-07T07:14:00.000-05:00

Wikileaks Needs You!

2011-11-07T02:36:00.001-05:00

The organization Obama and the banks want to destroy.

Gov. Scott Walker gets checked, Mic Checked!

2011-11-06T01:21:00.003-04:00

Hey Obama, Why Is Al-Qaeda's Flag Flying Over Libya?

2011-11-05T06:08:00.004-04:00

From Kushmonster.

The colossal atrocities taking place in Libya and across North Africa and the Middle East are notable not only for their brutal, insensible and blind cruelty, but for the transparent and bold nature of the escalating plans for the Brave New World Order of the Anglo European supernumeraries of these esoteric cabals. The present convulsions of the world economic and political order as it descends into a predesigned chaos is proceeding without any significant opposition as the streets of world capitals descend into a desired anarchic mobocracy in prelude to the establishment of martial law.

Chris Hedges And Others Arrested In Front of Goldman Sachs

2011-11-05T05:16:00.002-04:00

More Drone Death Strikes on Civilians From CIA/Peace Laureate Obama

2011-11-05T04:57:00.002-04:00

From The Nation

WANA (Online) – A Pakistani teenager, who recently joined a protest rally against US drone strikes, was killed in an attack by the CIA-operated spy planes in North Waziristan tribal region, a campaigner against the missile strikes said on Tuesday.
Sixteen-year-old Muhammad Tariq of North Waziristan had joined hundreds of tribesmen in the rally against drone strikes in the Pakistani capital on Friday. The protesters had called for an immediate end to the strikes, saying they killed many civilians, reported Rediff.com.

Tariq was killed with his cousin Waheed, 12, in a US drone strike on Monday night near Mirali, a key town in the restive North Waziristan tribal agency, said Karim Khan, who is leading a campaign against the missile attacks.
Khan, who belongs to Mirali, had lost his son in a drone attack last year.

He filed a case against the former CIA station chief and several top US officials in a police station in Islamabad for what he said was the murder of innocent tribesmen in drone strikes.

At least four people were killed in Monday night’s drone strike on a house and a vehicle, according to local media reports.
It was the fourth strike in Waziristan in five days.

On Sunday, US spy planes fired missiles at a house in North Waziristan and killed at least six people.

Greece? No, Oakland California.

2011-11-03T21:33:00.002-04:00

Greece? No. Oakland California. Greece and Gaza, far far away are coming to you with some birthday kisses...as the world banking dictatorship closes ranks against all democracies and peoples of the world...

Go to this link to watch the video of social unrest in California, USA.

U.S. Pulls All Funding for UNESCO After Sweeping Vote to Support Palestinian Membership

2011-11-02T03:34:00.002-04:00

The bully strikes again.

From Democracy Now.

In an emotional—and largely symbolic—move, the United Nations cultural organization known as UNESCO overwhelmingly voted to grant membership to the Palestinians, despite opposition from the United States and Israel. Now the United States says it will cancel a $60 million payment due in November to the U.N. body. Membership dues paid by the U.S. account for about a fifth of UNESCO’s annual budget. The U.S. is also threatening to veto any Palestinian effort to be recognized by the U.N. Security Council as an independent state. "By going to UNESCO, this was a way both of gauging where the public opinion is among the various governments and, more importantly, symbolically for the world, showing that this is a moment of recognition that the 20-year-old U.S.-controlled so-called 'peace process' simply hasn’t worked," said Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies.

Lessig: US Could Fall Like Rome

2011-10-31T14:45:00.001-04:00

Goldman Sachs v. Occupy Wall Street: A Greg Palast Investigation

2011-10-30T11:50:00.001-04:00

The Violence Unleashed In Our Name...

2011-10-29T17:11:00.001-04:00

Just A Little Bombing...

2011-10-29T16:46:00.001-04:00

Not sure what this is exactly, but I think it may be the NATO humanitarian mission in Libya.

More Evidence of Mass Murder by Rebels Found in Sirte.

2011-10-27T06:36:00.004-04:00

From Al Jazeera

The bodies of 267 people, many of them believed to have been summarily executed, have been found in Sirte, the hometown of slain Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, a Red Cross source told the online Libyan newspaper Qurynaew on Wednesday.

Officials from the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, now in Sirte, had documented the bodies before they were buried in mass graves, the source told the Libyan paper.

And from RIA

The bodies of 267 people have been found buried in mass graves in Sirte, the hometown and last stronghold of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Fox News said.

Most of the dead were supporters of Gaddafi and had been executed, Fox News reported late on Wednesday citing a Red Cross source who spoke with an online Libyan newspaper.

Oakland: Former U.S. Marine and Protestor in Critical Condition After Being Shot in the Head by ‘Police Projectile’

2011-10-27T04:25:00.002-04:00

From Cryptogon.

A statement by the group Iraq Veterans Against the War said Olsen was suffering from a skull fracture after being hit by a “police projectile.”

Keith Shannon, a friend and fellow veteran, said that Olsen had joined the Oakland protest because “he felt corporations and banks had too much control over our government.”

Police could not immediately be reached for comment.

16 Things Libya Will Never See Again

2011-10-26T13:43:00.001-04:00

From Disinformation.

There is no electricity bill in Libya; electricity is free for all its citizens.
There is no interest on loans, banks in Libya are state-owned and loans given to all its citizens at zero percent interest by law.
Having a home considered a human right in Libya.
All newlyweds in Libya receive $60,000 dinar (U.S.$50,000) by the government to buy their first apartment so to help start up the family.
Education and medical treatments are free in Libya. Before Gaddafi only 25 percent of Libyans were literate. Today, the figure is 83 percent.
Should Libyans want to take up farming career, they would receive farming land, a farming house, equipments, seeds and livestock to kickstart their farms are all for free.
If Libyans cannot find the education or medical facilities they need, the government funds them to go abroad, for it is not only paid for, but they get a U.S.$2,300/month for accommodation and car allowance.
If a Libyan buys a car, the government subsidizes 50 percent of the price.
The price of petrol in Libya is $0.14 per liter.
Libya has no external debt and its reserves amounting to $150 billion are now frozen globally.
If a Libyan is unable to get employment after graduation the state would pay the average salary of the profession, as if he or she is employed, until employment is found.
A portion of every Libyan oil sale is credited directly to the bank accounts of all Libyan citizens.
A mother who gives birth to a child receive U.S.$5,000.
40 loaves of bread in Libya costs $0.15.
25 percent of Libyans have a university degree.
Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project, known as the Great Manmade River project, to make water readily available throughout the desert country.

Obama to Leno: Libya ‘A Recipe For Success’

2011-10-26T08:52:00.002-04:00

From Cryptogon

A recipe for success?

The grinning, shill, international terrorist President of the United States talks up the regime’s atrocities on a late night comedy show, with the host, audience and millions of people out in TV land going along with it…

Holy shit.

Read more...

Before US-NATO Invasion, Libya Had The Highest Human Development Index , The Lowest Infant Mortality, The Highest Life Expectancy In All Of Africa

2011-10-25T03:11:00.002-04:00

Just the kind of country the globalists can't stand. Providing for its people and independent from debt.

From Counter Currents.

Before the USNATO and “rebels” began their murderous and destructive attacks on the Libyans and their government, people In Libya had the highest gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita of all of Africa. The government took care to ensure that everyone in the country shared in the wealth. Libya had the highest Human Development Index of any country on the continent. In Libya, a lower percentage of people lived below the poverty line than in the Netherlands....Libya ranked 61st, with a lower incarceration rate than Czech republic. It had the lowest infant mortality rate of all of Africa. Libya had the highest life expectancy of all of Africa, less than 5% of the population was undernourished, In response to the rising food prices around the world, the government of Libya abolished all taxes on food. (Taken from “World Cheers as the CIA Plunges Libya into Chaos” by David Rothscum, Axis of Logic, 2/27/11)

A fact the media cannot falsify is the HDI (Human Development Index) measured by UN officials. These data indicate, for example, that Libya had in 1970, a situation a little worse than Brazil (HDI of 0.541, against 0.551 of Brazil.) The Libyan index surpassed the Brazilian years later, and in 2008 was well ahead: 0.810 (ranked 43rd), compared to 0.764 for Brazil (ranking 59th). All three sub-indices that comprise the HDI are higher in Libya: income, longevity and education. Libya is the country with the highest HDI in Africa. Therefore, the best distribution of income and health care and public education—the last two are free. And almost 10% of Libyan students receive scholarships to study in foreign countries. In his “Green Book” Gadhafi wrote that workers should be politically involved and self-employed, and that the land belongs to those who work it and the house to those who reside there. And power shall be exercised by the people directly, without intermediaries, without politicians, through popular congresses and committees, where the whole population decides the fundamental issues of the district, city and country...real democracy, not capitalist “representative” democracy that works for those who have the most and ignores those who have little. (Taken from “Who Is Muammar Gaddafi?” by Antonio Cesar Oliveira)

Before the current USNATO military invasion, Libya was pumping one million 800 thousand barrels a day of excellent quality light oil, along with abundant deposits of natural gas. Such riches—because shared with the Libyan people--allowed Libya to reach life expectancy that is almost at 75 years of age and the highest per capita income in Africa. In December 1951, Libya became the first African country to attain its independence after WWII. Its harsh desert is located over an enormous lake of fossil waters, equivalent to more than three times the land area of Cuba; this has made it possible to construct a broad network of pipelines of fresh water that stretch from one end of the country to the other. (Taken from “Does NATO Plan To Occupy Libya?” by Fidel Castro, 2/22/11)

The Fall of Sirte Is The Opposite of What Some Proclaim

2011-10-23T17:58:00.006-04:00

From Zerohedge:

"The death of Muammar Gaddafi marks the end of an era of despotism and repression from which the Libyan people have suffered for too long. Today Libya can turn a page in its history, pursue national reconciliation, and embrace a new democratic future." This is a statement written by the Golum on the left in the picture below.

In fact, the opposite is much more likely true.

Oops! Neocon's Libyan Fiasco: 20, 000 Surface-to-Air Missiles Missing

2011-10-23T14:37:00.000-04:00

NATO bombing of Sirte: the new Guernica

2011-10-23T14:32:00.002-04:00

From Human Rights Investigations.

It has not been released how many tons of bombs the NATO bombers have dropped in the vicinity of Sirte during this conflict, but it probably exceeds the 40 tons dropped by the Condor Legion on Guernica.

The League of Nations was entirely ineffective in defending civilian areas from being bombed during the Spanish Civil War and it remains to be seen if the United Nations will prove any better in this conflict.

Read full article and watch videos.

Withdrawal of US Troops From Iraq Highly Suspect

2011-10-22T08:43:00.003-04:00

From Land Destroyer Report

Think-tank designs for Iran leave only Israeli attack & coaxed provocation for total war on table...

...The US is at least peddling the illusion it is clearing out its holdings in Iraq, leaving a symbolic force for a reason - a reason that has to do with a final gambit to be played against Iran, the last domino to fall in the US-contrived "Arab Spring." These are two possible scenarios:

1. Leave a small symbolic force for the Iranians to attack in Iraq after a "unilateral" Israeli airstrike. Whatever Iran decides to do, it may not be able to do sustainably, but will do viciously in the opening phases. By leaving a symbolic force in Iraq, the US can garner the necessary sympathy and anger politically at home to launch a wider operation against Iran in "retaliation."

2. Feign as if the US is disengaging from the Middle East so when a false flag terror attack or other provocation is perpetrated against the US, it will look like an egregious act of war by Iran. While a shrinking US presence in the Middle East would logically engender even more patience in Tehran, the script writers of the latest DEA-Saudi bomb plot took special care to ensure the "Iran has become bolder" talking-point made it repetitively on air and into the minds of unsuspecting Americans.

This is more than mere idle speculation. In the Brookings Institution report, "Which Path to Persia?" nearly all but the most extreme measures proposed in the report have been executed. The only options left on the table unused include a unilateral Israeli airstrike designed to provoke a significant retaliation thus bringing the US into war with Iran and a variety of options to provoke a full-scale invasion.

Read article in full.

Who is this Creepy Woman?

2011-10-21T13:46:00.002-04:00

The empire will end badly, it always does.

Pepe Escobar Tells The Truth...

2011-10-21T11:09:00.001-04:00

Now that the CIA’s proxy army has murdered Gadhafi, what next for Libya?

2011-10-21T11:03:00.002-04:00

From Prison Planet.

Now that the CIA’s proxy army has murdered Gadhafi, what next for Libya?

If Washington’s plans succeed, Libya will become another American puppet state. Most of the cities, towns, and infrastructure have been destroyed by air strikes by the air forces of the US and Washington’s NATO puppets. US and European firms will now get juicy contracts, financed by US taxpayers, to rebuild Libya. The new real estate will be carefully allocated to lubricate a new ruling class picked by Washington. This will put Libya firmly under Washington’s thumb.

With Libya conquered, AFRICOM will start on the other African countries where China has energy and mineral investments. Obama has already sent US troops to Central Africa under the guise of defeating the Lord’s Resistance Army, a small insurgency against the ruling dictator-for-life. The Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, welcomed the prospect of yet another war by declaring that sending US troops into Central Africa “furthers US national security interests and foreign policy.” Republican Senator James Inhofe added a gallon of moral verbiage about saving “Ugandan children,” a concern the senator did not have for Libya’s children or Palestine’s, Iraq’s, Afghanistan’s and Pakistan’s.

Washington has revived the Great Power Game and is vying with China. Whereas China brings Africa investment and gifts of infrastructure, Washington sends troops, bombs and military bases. Sooner or later Washington’s aggressiveness toward China and Russia is going to explode in our faces.

Where is the money going to come from to finance Washington’s African Empire? Not from Libya’s oil. Big chunks of that have been promised to the French and British for providing cover for Washington’s latest war of naked aggression. Not from tax revenues from a collapsing US economy where unemployment, if measured correctly, is 23 percent.
With Washington’s annual budget deficit as huge as it is, the money can only come from the printing press...

...In the few opening years of the 21st century, Washington has destroyed the US Constitution, the separation of powers, international law, the accountability of government, and has sacrificed every moral principle to achieving hegemony over the world. This ambitious agenda is being attempted while simultaneously Washington removed all regulation over Wall Street, the home of massive greed, permitting Wall Street’s short-term horizon to wreck the US economy, thus destroying the economic basis for Washington’s assault on the world.

Will the US collapse in economic chaos before it rules the world?

Read article in full.

Some Images From The "New Libya" Being Celebrated In Every Western Newspaper and By Peace Laureate Obama

2011-10-21T09:05:00.006-04:00

Ah yes, this is the 'bright future' of the Nato supported 'freedom fighters.' Brutal murder accompanied with chants of 'Allah Akbar' is now the new Obama vision of peace and democracy. I haven't included the worst and most graphic videos which can be found here.

40 Trillion & Ticking: Global Debt Clock

2011-10-20T06:26:00.002-04:00

U.S. fears more plots from Iran's Quds Force

2011-10-20T02:56:00.002-04:00

So expect more staged/fake plots, the next one probably more lethal and used to initiate the bombing campaign against Iran.

From Reuters

(Reuters) - The United States believes Iran's shadowy Quds Force is becoming increasingly aggressive overseas and may be working on other international plots beyond the alleged plan to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington, three U.S. officials told Reuters...

Family Values: The Roman Rigor of Obama's Death Squad

2011-10-19T14:30:00.002-04:00

From Empire Burlesque

It is not enough for the Peace Laureate to murder American citizens without charges, without trial and without warning; he must also murder their children too -- in the same cowardly, cold-blooded fashion.

Last week, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki -- an American teenager -- was ripped to shreds by an American drone missile in Yemen. The boy, like his father, Anwar al-Awlaki -- had not been charged with any crime whatsoever, much less convicted and sentenced. So what was his offense? He missed his father -- who had been in hiding from the Peace Laureate's publicly stated intention to assassinate him -- and he went off to find him.

His search took him into one of the areas of Yemen where there are groups opposed to the murderous regime now controlling the country and slaughtering its own citizens in cold blood -- with American weapons, American money, and the full support of the Peace Laureate and his peace-loving administration of peaceful peaceniks. People in such regions -- not only in Yemen but all over the world -- are of course subject to instant, agonizing death from the Peace Laureate's brave, bold robot drones, guided by noble warriors nestled in cushioned chairs behind fortress walls thousands of miles away.

And so a button was pushed, and 16-year-old Abdulrahman -- and his 17-year-old cousin -- were turned into steaming lumps of coagulate gore by the drones of the Peace Laureate. The Laureate's minions and satraps then spread the story that the child was actually a grown man, "suspected" of being a "militant." It was, of course, an arrant and deliberate lie, but it did its work. The first -- and only -- thing the public at large heard about this murder was that yet another dirty terrorist raghead had bitten the dust, and so big fat what?

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Ron Paul Labels Iran Plot 'War Propaganda.'

2011-10-19T14:07:00.003-04:00

Good to hear someone say the (revolutionary) obvious. The teleprompter nobel laureate Obama however has not been so forthcoming.

Corporate-Fascists Clamor for Iran War

2011-10-16T07:47:00.002-04:00

From Land Destroyer Blog.

While US politicians grapple over the credibility of using the US DEA's bomb plot to assassinate a Saudi ambassador as a pretext to escalate tensions with Iran, America's unelected, corporate-funded policy makers have already announced their long, foregone conclusion. The DEA's entrapment case is decidedly to be used as a pretext for war with Iran...

Know your enemy. It is not turban-wearing cave dwellers that threaten America. It is unelected, corporate policy pimps like those found lurking within the halls of the Foreign Policy Initiative. They seek to mislead Americans into supporting an agenda that literally bleeds them to death while they and their corporate-financier sponsors continue to consolidate both wealth and power on a global scale.

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Questions about the 'Alleged' Iranian plot...'Intentional Fraud?'

2011-10-14T05:30:00.001-04:00

Now the next revelation Hillary will be when you realize the entire "war on terror" is a sham.

U.S. Challenged to Explain Accusations of Iran Plot in the Face of Skepticism

2011-10-13T08:56:00.002-04:00

From The New York Times.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Wednesday sought to reconcile what it said was solid evidence of an Iranian plot to murder Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States with a wave of puzzlement and skepticism from some foreign leaders and outside experts.

Senior American officials themselves were struggling to explain why the Quds Force, an elite international operations unit within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, would orchestrate such a risky attack in so amateurish a manner.

FBI head: Terror plot read like movie script

2011-10-12T05:31:00.002-04:00

Because it is a movie script.

From USA Today.

At one point, Arbabsiar urged that the assault should move forward, even if it meant that innocent Americans also would be killed in the proposed bomb attack in the U.S. capital, according to federal court documents.
Court papers allege Arbabsiar was working closely with Gholam Shakuri, 47, an Iranian-based member of Iran's Quds Force — a unit of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — while meeting continuously to recruit the U.S. informant and others whom Arbabsiar mistakenly believed to be terrorists.
FBI Director Robert Mueller said Tuesday that the alleged attack plan read like a story line from "a Hollywood script," although it involved "a very serious threat."

Come On And Get Ready For The Next Manufactured War

2011-10-12T04:17:00.002-04:00

Does anyone out there believe these lies? To any thinking person they are assanine. In no way could this 'conspiracy' serve any possible interest Iran might have. It only serves the interest of those who have been waiting for the right moment for years to attack Iran. With the economy and western governments on the edge of a cliff, here comes yet another manufactured war.

From Reuters

(Reuters) - If a shadowy Iranian government unit indeed plotted to kill Saudi Arabia's U.S. ambassador, it would be an unprecedented -- and worrying -- spread of Iranian covert activities into the United States, experts and officials said...

Romney Picks Notorious Neocon as Lead Foreign Policy Adviser

2011-10-09T09:55:00.001-04:00

From Infowars.

GOP front-runner Mitt Romney – who has promised us another century of mass murder and crimes against humanity – has picked a neocon as his new foreign policy adviser.

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Chris Hedges Destroys CBC Idiots In Interview.

2011-10-08T04:42:00.004-04:00

I can't repost the video but here is the link. Watch it, it is genius.

Chris hedges is a great guy who was fired from the New York Times because he was against the wars. The New York Times couldn't deal with that because they love wars for profit that kill and maim hundreds of thousands. It's a lovely newspaper but I like Mr. Hedges more. Here is an interview with him. Watch him dismiss the assholes interviewing him. Great interview. CBC I wish you poverty and bankruptcy.

IMF advisor says we face a Worldwide Banking Meltdown

2011-10-07T05:50:00.003-04:00

Also have a look at this:

From The Telegraph

Sir Mervyn King was speaking after the decision by the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee to put £75billion of newly created money into the economy in a desperate effort to stave off a new credit crisis and a UK recession.

Economists said the Bank’s decision to resume its quantitative easing [QE], or asset purchase programme, showed it was increasingly fearful for the economy, and predicted more such moves ahead.

Sir Mervyn said the Bank had been driven by growing signs of a global economic disaster.
“This is the most serious financial crisis we’ve seen, at least since the 1930s, if not ever. We’re having to deal with very unusual circumstances, but to act calmly to this and to do the right thing.”

Mainstream media skewed on Syria

2011-10-06T08:36:00.002-04:00

Secret panel can put Americans on "kill list'

2011-10-06T08:11:00.002-04:00

From Reuters

(Reuters) - American militants like Anwar al-Awlaki are placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior government officials, which then informs the president of its decisions, according to officials.

There is no public record of the operations or decisions of the panel, which is a subset of the White House's National Security Council, several current and former officials said. Neither is there any law establishing its existence or setting out the rules by which it is supposed to operate. The panel was behind the decision to add Awlaki, a U.S.-born militant preacher with alleged al Qaeda connections, to the target list. He was killed by a CIA drone strike in Yemen late last month....

...The Obama administration has not made public an accounting of the classified evidence that Awlaki was operationally involved in planning terrorist attacks.

But officials acknowledged that some of the intelligence purporting to show Awlaki's hands-on role in plotting attacks was patchy.

More Police vs. Protestor Videos...

2011-10-06T07:53:00.002-04:00