Coming up every Saturday at 1:00 pm Pacific * 04:00 pm Eastern * 20:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Monday


Ann Wright: All Right! — Woman of Conscience!
Cindy interviews a noted woman of conscience, Ann Wright, former Army Colonel, Foreign Diplomat, and Anti-war Activist. Ann was in a small boat, just astern of the Mavi Marmara in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla – from which vantage point she closely observed the unprovoked Israeli attack on an unarmed mercy ship in International waters. Colonel Wright is an old friend of Cindy’s; having helped her organize and operate Camp Casey during Cindy’s famous mission to Crawford, Texas in 2005. (You remember: back when President Bush demonstrated to the whole world he was afraid to meet with her.) Today, we have a brand-new President, bringing brand new changes. Since that brand-new President still wants more sacrifices (of other mothers’ children) for that noble cause, Cindy still wants to know what that “noble cause” might be. (Is that too hard to comprehend?) Certainly, the President of the most powerful nation on the face of the earth cannot be scared to explain to one mother just why grinding her once-living precious baby into just another corpse was a noble act, can he? After all, it’s not like it’s something he doesn’t do every day. Every day he send out the children of other mothers to be turned into corpses, – or, if they’re lucky, to grind the children of Iraqi or Afghan mothers into corpses instead. By now we’ve had two Presidents tell us “this is noble.” Is it too much to ask the current wearer of Imperial purple just why it’s noble to turn children into corpses? We’re dying to hear your explanation. Cindy and Ann Wright have lots to discuss; it’s all good listening! [Note: The web site for Colonel Wright’s boat to Gaza is here.

This interview is from July 18, 2010.
Cindy’s website is here.

September 5, 2010 uruknet.info

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A pro-Palestinian group based in the US will send a plane loaded with aid to the Gaza Strip in defiance of Israel’s air and sea blockade, an official said Sunday.

“We intend to send an aircraft to Gaza in much the same way boats were used — without going through Israeli or Egyptian airspace,” said Paul Larudee, an organizer with the California-based Free Palestine Movement sponsoring the flight.

Authorities in Gaza are supportive of the initiative and are working to locate a landing site, Larudee said. Gaza’s now-defunct Yasser Arafat International Airport is not being considered, he said.

In the meantime, Free Palestine Movement officials will look for a plane designed for rough landings and takeoffs such as those used in Alaska and other locales lacking proper aviation facilities, Larudee said. The plan is to send a light aircraft equipped with material sometime in the spring of 2011, after the next sea voyage.

“Breaking the blockade by air may be even more feasible than by sea. An aircraft cannot be boarded while in flight, and the right aircraft can land almost anywhere in Gaza,” a statement on the group’s website says.

In May, Israeli navy commandos raided a six-boat flotilla loaded with humanitarian aid in international waters off the coast of Gaza. Nine Turkish citizens including a dual US national were killed in the operation. Israel says its soldiers came under fire from the activists, a claim Free Gaza Movement officials deny.

The years-long military blockade against Gaza is enforced by Egypt and Israel. Israel says the siege prevents weapons from entering the coastal enclave, but Palestinians as well as the UN and human rights groups say it amounts to collective punishment against the civilian population in addition to Hamas.

READ FULL STORY HERE

9/11 Cameraman Faces Extradition to United States
by grtv tv.globalresearch.ca
Kurt Sonnenfeld
Posted on: September 4, 2010

An American cameraman who says September 11 was a lie is facing extradition from Argentina to the United States on alleged murder charges. Kurt Sonnenfeld, a man who was provided provisory refugee status seven years ago, is now wanted by the US government on murder charges. He is the only cameraman that filmed crucial images of Ground Zero in New York after the Twin Towers collapsed.

Sonnenfeld, who lives in Buenos Aires with his Argentine family, says the footage proves that 9/11 was a lie. He still has the 22-hour footage that US authorities want.

“I have promised to give my footage to the big investigators that are credible and widely known – investigators who will be able to detect anomalies that I or other people without scientific education might miss. With that in mind, I hope that there are many things they can discover that disprove the current official story of what happened,” Sonnenfeld told a Press TV correspondent.

He says he fears for his life if he is sent back to the United States to face trial. The Denver police have claimed they have evidence that show he killed his first wife in the US.

Social activists who are campaigning for Sonnenfeld to be given refugee status in Argentina say the Denver police are lying. The Sonnenfelds say they have been under police surveillance and that their phone has been tapped.

Sonnenfeld claims that his footage proves top US government officials were aware of the 2001 terrorist attacks before they occurred says he is a victim of a US plot to silence him.

READ FULL STORY HERE

veteranstoday.com  September 3, 2010 posted by Gordon Duff · 12 Comments

ANOTHER OF THE ENDLESS INEXPLICABLE TERRORIST ATTACKS IN PAKISTAN

TODAY’S SUICIDE BOMBING IN QUETTA, PAKISTAN LEAVES A TRAIL TO TEL AVIV

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

Quetta, Baluchistan, September 3, 2003 (Veterans Today)  Today, 43 Pakistanis were killed in a terror attack, killed for supporting Palestinians in Gaza.  The signs had been there, the Wikileaks attempt to put responsibility for the Taliban on Veterans Today editor General Hamid Gul.  This was debunked in a heartbeat.  This attack was vicious and clearly the work of Israel.   This was a terror attack meant as a message to the people of the world telling them that if they rally in support of those imprisoned in Gaza, they will be murdered.

Is it a gift for the Jewish people of Israel, another revenge attack, seemingly in response to the shooting of 4 Israeli Jews in Hebron, an attack curiously timed to disrupt peace talks between Jewish and Muslim Palestinians in Washington?

This is far from the first time Israel has been caught.  The PKK, the Kurdish terrorist group, communists, who have been attacking Turkey from their mountain “caves” in Iraq for over 40 years have long been trained, funded and even recruited by Israel’s Mossad.  Now the partnership between India and Israel, helped along, not only by the CIA, the Kazrai brothers “corporation” and MI -6 is becoming difficult to ignore.

With continual terror attacks a daily part of life in Pakistan, several in Lahore this week, there is no ignoring the real culprits.  Nearly every contracting firm the United States uses in, not only Afghanistan but Pakistan as well, is filled to the brim with Israeli operatives.  Working with them is the massive CIA assisted drug cartel and its worldwide network of private airlines for shipping heroin and cash and a dozen nations that take part.

SUSPECTED DRUG RUNWAY IN BALOCHISTAN, SOUTH OF KANDAHAR

All of this is only window dressing for the real show.  In 2003, Israel got America to destroy Iraq, well, and itself also.  Iraq was suicide for America.  It wasn’t until 2007 that America had discovered its own corpse.

The war in Afghanistan is destroying, not only that country but Pakistan as well.  Israel will not allow an Islamic nuclear power to threaten their control over Asia.  The real target has always been control of the Suez Canal and the real prize, India.  What appears to America to be an economic powerhouse is a deeply divided and trouble nation beset by enemies and ready to be turned into a surrogate military power and then stripped to the bones.

This is what happened to the United States.

Pakistan is important.  For years, the “CIA” and other intelligence organizations have been in Baluchistan sneaking in and out of Iran blowing things up.  How much of that is CIA and how much is Mossad, nobody knows for sure.  This is another terrorist organization, called the “Jundallah.”  Like the PKK in Turkey and the Tehrik-i-Taliban, the terrorist group making life in Pakistan a living hell, the Jundallah get all the money, weapons, training, transportation and maybe more, much more, they need to fight covert wars against the targets of Tel Aviv.

Baluchistan also has several small airports where heroin can be loaded and flown out.  American contracting firms control those facilities and have for years.  Narcotics are delivered there from Afghanistan and leave on aircraft meant to supply America’s “black ops” against, well, whoever it is that Israel is angry at.

For Americans, the real question, if Israel is funding terrorist organizations attacking, not only Iran but America’s NATO partner Turkey and longtime ally Pakistan, facts long in evidence everywhere but in the American press, are there also terrorist attacks against American forces and America itself being planned?  Have any been carried out and if so, how many?

Does Israel gain when America marches to war against her perceived enemies?  Is it a long declared policy to do anything necessary, not actually to enhance Israel’s survival, never really in question at all, not really ever actually, but their dominance?

What was obvious today is that the terror attack in Pakistan had nothing to do with Taliban of any kind.  It had only one goal, to punish the people of Pakistan, ethnic Pushtu’s, not the ruling Punjabi’s, for supporting the Palestinian cause and supporting a two-state solution during the current peace initiative sponsored by President Obama.  We know Israel goes after anyone who stands up for Palestine but killing dozens of civilians at a rally in Quetta, Baluchistan is an escalation, even for Israel.

No, this isn’t an escalation in violence, it isn’t even close to the biggest body count Israel has run up.

Perhaps the worst part of it is that nobody will say a word about this.  Pakistan is broke, even by American standards.  They survive off American foreign aid, money they continue to receive as long as they never say a word about Israel of publicly attribute the wave of terrorism they have been subjected to where the real blame belongs.  I have seen the head of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the current Director General of the ISI, hint at Osama bin Laden being dead.  I have interviewed him about it personally.

I was sworn to keep the discussion private and confidential.  I will keep my word.

Pakistan is being held hostage.  Mrs. Clinton continually chastises them about failing to find long dead Osama bin Laden, the imaginary planner of 9/11.  Former ISI Director General Hamid Gul, now retired and known for his outspoken honesty, places the blame for 9/11 exactly where it belongs, where he placed on the day it happened.  With the Israeli lobby in control of Washington and Washington’s money in control of Pakistan, this won’t be the last terror attack.

The next time anyone anywhere tries to aid Palestinians or to get the truth about Israel’s apartheid policies and ethnic cleansing past the corporte controlled press, expect another suicide bombing.  Look at the way the press handled Israeli murder and piracy with the Freedom Flotilla?  Less than 5% of Americans know that Israel was caught back in 1967 knowingly attacking an American ship, the USS Liberty.  It wasn’t the first Israeli terror attack on Americans and there have been dozens since.  You will never read a word about them.

With another 9/11 anniversary coming up, Palestine peace talks going on and Israel doing everthing in its power to force America to attack Iran, security forces throughout the United States are on high alert for Islamic terrorists.

Everyone ‘in the know” understand that the warning is really for Israeli terrorists.  Will the United States Air Force be there if needed, unlike during 9/11?  Will terrorists all show up with fresh student visas courtesty of the State Department like during 9/11?

Are we past the time when America is willing to look the other way when a thousand strange coincidences bring about that “perfect storm,” exactly when and where needed, a “storm” to eclipse 9/11 in horror, enough to send a war weary people, long lied to, no longer trusting their government, down the road to war for Israel again?

Four dead Israelis in Hebron was a clue.  The 43 dead in Quetta is another.  The imaginary Amsterdam hijackers were meant to be one also.  More will come with each day, more clues, more planted news stories, more staging, more preparing the minds to expect what so many of us know is coming.

Who do you think recruits terror cells?  Who has been doing it forever?  Who can travel freely, use passports of any nation and has endless money?  You think there really is an Al Qaeda?

Why does everything Al Quade do only help Israel?

Is Al Qaeda another Mossad front?

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

August 31, 2010 uruknet.info Press release from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) today filed a lawsuit challenging the government’s asserted authority to carry out “targeted killings” of U.S. citizens located far from any armed conflict zone. The authority contemplated by the Obama administration is far broader than what the Constitution and international law allow, the groups charge. Outside of armed conflict, both the Constitution and international law prohibit targeted killing except as a last resort to protect against concrete, specific, and imminent threats of death or serious physical injury. An extrajudicial killing policy under which names are added to CIA and military “kill lists” through a secret executive process and stay there for months at a time is plainly not limited to imminent threats. “The United States cannot simply execute people, including its own citizens, anywhere in the world based on its own say-so,” said Vince Warren, Executive Director of CCR. “The law prohibits the government from killing without trial or conviction other than in the face of an imminent threat that leaves no time for deliberation or due process. That the government adds people to kill lists after a bureaucratic process and leaves them on the lists for months at a time flies in the face of the Constitution and international law.” The groups charge that targeting individuals for execution who are suspected of terrorism but have not been convicted or even charged – without oversight, judicial process or disclosed standards for placement on kill lists – also poses the risk that the government will erroneously target the wrong people. In recent years, the U.S. government has detained many men as terrorists, only for courts or the government itself to discover later that the evidence was wrong or unreliable. According to today’s legal complaint, the government has not disclosed the standards it uses for authorizing the premeditated and deliberate killing of U.S. citizens located far from any battlefield. The groups argue that the American people are entitled to know the standards being used for these life and death decisions. “A program that authorizes killing U.S. citizens, without judicial oversight, due process or disclosed standards is unconstitutional, unlawful and un-American,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “We don’t sentence people to prison on the basis of secret criteria, and we certainly shouldn’t sentence them to death that way. It is not enough for the executive branch to say ‘trust us’ – we have seen that backfire in the past and we should learn from those mistakes.” CCR and the ACLU were retained by Nasser Al-Aulaqi to bring a lawsuit in connection with the government’s decision to authorize the targeted killing of his son, U.S. citizen Anwar Al-Aulaqi, whom the CIA and Defense Department have targeted for death. The complaint asks a court to rule that using lethal force far from any battlefield and without judicial process is illegal in all but the narrowest circumstances and to prohibit the government from carrying out targeted killings except in compliance with these standards. It also asks the court to order the government to disclose the standards it uses to place U.S. citizens on government kill lists. Today’s lawsuit was filed against the CIA, Defense Department and the president in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Attorneys on the case are Jameel Jaffer, Ben Wizner and Jonathan Manes of the ACLU; Pardiss Kebriaei, Maria LaHood and Bill Quigley of CCR; and Arthur B. Spitzer of the ACLU of the Nation’s Capital. Co-counsel in Yemen is Mohammed Allawo of the Allawo Law Firm and the National Organization for Defending Human Rights (HOOD). For more information on the case, including fact sheets and legal papers, visit:  www.aclu.org/targetedkillings and www.ccrjustice.org/targetedkillings. The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change. Visit www.ccrjustice.org. The ACLU is our nation’s guardian of liberty, working daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country. Visit www.aclu.org. CONTACT: Rachel Myers, ACLU, (212) 549-2689; media@aclu.org Jen Nessel, CCR, (212) 614-6449; jnessel@ccrjustice.org Shonna Carter, Riptide Communications, (212) 260-5000 ACLU press line, (212) 549-2666

READ FULL STORY HERE

Coming up today and every Monday at 7:00 pm Pacific * 10:00 pm Eastern * 02:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Tuesday.

GUNS AND BUTTER with Bonnie Faulkner
Vietnam, Star Wars and 9/11 — Lt. Col. Bob Bowman
Dr. Bowman discusses his US Air Force experiences in Vietnam in 1969-70; as Director of Advanced Space Programs Development in the Ford and Carter administrations (Star Wars); the 1982 Defense Guidance Document; his public opposition to the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) better know as Star Wars during the Ronald Reagan administration; his take on the events of September 11, 2001; and wars of aggression.

The murder of MI6 operative Gareth Williams last week has turned the spotlight on the shady world of espionage. Here, a former intelligence officer for MI5 explains why the life of a British spy is an insular one

Telegraph.co.uk

There are distinct cultures within each of the three major UK spy agencies: MI5, the UK domestic security service; MI6, the overseas intelligence organisation; and GCHQ, the Government Communications HQ.

MI6 officers, as people who may have to work independently and undercover abroad, tend to be confident, individualistic and “ethically flexible”, while MI5 officers need to co-ordinate a broad range of resources and people to run an operation, which requires greater team-building. Of the three agencies, GCHQ remains the most secretive and inward-looking, and is staffed predominantly with “boffin” types. Williams, with his mathematical skills and loner tendencies, would be a typical employee.

Despite the intelligence community presenting a united front to the outside world, culture clashes between the three agencies are commonplace. Staff on secondment between agencies – as Williams was, from GCHQ to MI6 – can have a rough time fitting into a new environment, working with colleagues who eye them with suspicion, as the divisions jockey for power, prestige and resources within Whitehall.

So what is life like working as a spy? The world of intelligence is not so much isolating as insulating. Even as you proceed through the convoluted recruitment process, you find yourself entering a parallel universe, one that exists alongside your everyday life.

From that first, exploratory meeting with an intelligence officer in an unmarked building in central London, you have to withdraw a little from your old existence. You are asked not to tell your family and friends, and immediately have to sign a notification of the rigorous terms of the Official Secrets Act, whereby if you talk about your work, you risk imprisonment.

The process of induction into this world is intriguing, flattering and seductive. The agencies tend to avoid the James Bond wannabes, and those inspired by the fake glamour of Spooks. The key motivation is generally wanting to do a job that can make a difference, protect the country and potentially save lives. The secret element adds spice and perhaps compensates for the anorexic pay. When I started working for MI5 in 1991, at the fast-track graduate level, the starting salary was £14,500 pa – a good £5,000 less than my peer group from Cambridge earned in their blue-chip jobs. The pay has improved somewhat since then, but you don’t become a spy for the money.

The vetting process is protracted. For MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, officers are required to have the highest clearance – Developed Vetting. This begins with a home visit. Disconcertingly, I soon found myself in the family sitting room being grilled about my sex life by a little, grey-haired lady who looked just like a favourite grandmother, until you looked into her eyes.

Then the process widens. I had to nominate four friends who were willing to be interviewed about me, and they were asked to suggest yet more people… so secrecy becomes impossible. One friend, of a Left-wing hue, disapproved of my recruitment; even those who were supportive were reluctant to ask me too much. As I couldn’t talk to them freely about my life, they felt increasingly shut out, so I lost old friends along the way.

Unsurprisingly, new officers begin to socialise increasingly with their colleagues, and close friendships grow rapidly. Within this clique, we could talk shop at dinner parties, use the same slang and terminology, discuss our work, and whinge about our bosses. With outsiders, we could never be fully ourselves. This, inevitably, often led to more than friendships. What might otherwise be called office romances flourished. I met my former partner, David Shayler, when we were both in our first posting in MI5.

Such relationships were not exactly encouraged, but were generally seen as a good thing by management – unless, of course, it was a clandestine matter that could leave the officer vulnerable to blackmail. Such affairs were seen as vetting offences.

Among spies, an old double standard held firm. There was one couple who were caught in flagrante in the office, not once but twice. The male officer was put on “gardening leave” for six months; the woman was sacked.

For the first few weeks in the job, the feeling of unreality and dislocation is strong. The only solid information you have about your new position, as you walk into the office for the first time, is the grade at which you will be working – nothing else.

My first posting was to the small counter-subversion section, F2. Even though it was a desk job, the information I was dealing with came from sensitive sources: intercepted communications, reports from agents who had penetrated target groups, police reports. And yet, within a few weeks, the handling of such secret and intrusive information became entirely normal.

Investigations can be very fast-paced, particularly in the counter-terrorism sections. Generally, officers work regular hours but occasionally, if an operation goes live, you work around the clock. If it proves a success, there might be a news item on the television about it – but obviously without the full back story. That can be a surreal experience. You feel pride that you’ve achieved what you signed up to do, but you cannot discuss it with anybody outside the office. At such moments, the disconnect from mainstream life is intensely sharp.

However, when something goes wrong – a bomb goes off in which civilians die – the feelings are even more intense. Guilt, anger, frustration, and a scramble to ensure that the blame doesn’t attach to your section. The official motto of MI5 is Regnum Defende – defence of the realm. Staff mordantly used to joke that it should more accurately be Rectum Defende.

Personal security also ensures that there is a constant barrier between you and the normal world. If you meet someone interesting at a party, you cannot say too much about what you do, and such reticence can appear unfriendly. The cover story that MI5 officers use is that they work as civil servants at the Ministry of Defence; for MI6, it is the Foreign Office. This usually stops people from asking too much more, either through discretion or, frankly, boredom. Once or twice, people pushed me for more information, and my paranoia antennae immediately began to twitch: why are they so interested? Are they spies or, God forbid, journalists?

I had the misfortune once of using this cover story at a party, only to find my interlocutor actually worked for the real Ministry of Defence, and wanted to know which section I worked in, who my colleagues were, how long I had been there… Thankfully, the magic word “Box” – slang used to describe MI5 within Whitehall, derived from the organisation’s old PO Box 500 number – brought that line of conversation to an abrupt halt.

As an intelligence officer, you quickly learn to be discreet on the telephone and in emails. Oblique conversations become the norm, and this bleeds into your personal life, too, much to the frustration of friends and family.

The internet is another challenge. As a “spook”, the last thing you want to see is your photograph on a friend’s Facebook page. Or, even worse, holiday snaps showing you in your Speedos, as the current head of MI6, Sir John Sawyer, found to his cost last year.

Read entire article here

Coming up every Saturday at 1:00 pm Pacific – 04:00 pm Eastern – 20:00 GMT


Author and Peace Activist David Swanson
Cindy welcomes David Swanson. David is a long-time peace activist, a founder of “After Downing Street”, and author of a famous new book on Undoing the Imperial Presidency. They discuss the ongoing failures of current policy, alternatives and plans for 2010. Especially after the recent spate of disapointments by Presznit (Presto) Change-O! So: say hey, people – this is a very good Soapbox. Listen up.

This interview is from December 20, 2009, but still highly relevant today.
Cindy’s website is here.

READ FULL STORY HERE

By Israel Shamir ** israelshamir.net ** August 2010

Bombs go off in Turkey — a great spree of terrorist bombings and attacks. Practically every day Turkish soldiers and civilians are being killed. The killings are done ostensibly by the Kurd terrorists of the PKK, but in reality it is a new step in Israel’s warfare against Turkish independence. Encouraged by Israel, the PKK has extended its operations to the Aegean and the Black Sea resorts all the way to Izmir.

Israelis have armed, supplied and trained Kurdish terrorists for many years; they have turned Iraqi Kurdistan into their own territory, with many Israeli businessmen going about their affairs while waiting for Kirkuk oil to flow to Haifa as it did in the days of colonial British rule. The Kurds have remained a hidden tool of Israel in the region for many years; their activation now shows that Israel still wants to teach the Turks a lesson.

The main neocon magazine in the US, frontpagemag.com, has openly called for the Kurds to retaliate for Turkey’s support of Palestine. Another Jewish right-wing think-tank speaks of mobilising the US Congress to condemn the one-hundred-year-old Armenian tragedy as a means of undermining Turkey.  After many years of siding with Turkey, the Jewish Lobby has now decided to switch sides and support the Armenian claims. So Turkey is now under attack from all sides. This was to be expected, for the popular Israeli slogan says: “If force does not work, use more force.”

This is the explanation of the Flotilla Massacre on May 31, 2010. The Mavi Marmara attack was intended to be a short, sharp shock to the increasingly independent Turks. The Israelis intended to terrify and frighten them into obedience; this is why they ordered a blood bath on board the Mavi Marmara. As we now know, the Israeli commandos began shooting well before encountering any resistance. They were not there to play softball; submission was what they were after. Murder was not a result of being surprised or of miscalculation: it was an open attack on Turkey.

Israel’s conflict with Turkey was not an unfortunate result of the murderous raid. The confrontation between them became acute two weeks before the massacre, on May 17, 2010. Together with Brazil, Turkey had arranged and signed the Tehran Declaration — a nuclear fuel swap deal with beleaguered Iran. This declaration could have derailed the US-Israeli plans of sanctioning Iran to death prior to bombing it.

Israel wants Iran destroyed; as much as she wanted Iraq demolished, Gaza starved and the rest cowed. The swap agreement undermined all the logic behind the sanctions. All the plotting of Israeli lobbyists in the US and Europe was wiped out in an instant. Indeed, as the Muslims say: they plot, but Allah plots better.

Israel received the news of the Turkey-Brazil-Iran agreement as a heavy blow. “We were defeated by the crafty Turks and Iranians,” read the headlines of Israeli newspapers. Not so fast! The US State Department minimized the damage, effectively asking: “Who cares what these lowlifes agree about? If we have decided to bomb somebody, bomb we shall. We shall never allow the facts to confuse us.” Thomas Friedman in the NYT was disappointed that “a Holocaust-denying thug” was being allowed to live.

Brazenly disregarding the agreement, the UN Security Council approved the sanctions on June, 9. Moscow and Beijing were bribed or blackmailed to agree. China preferred to play ball in order to avoid confrontation over North Korea. The story of the sunken South Korean ship had provided a pretext for an attack on North Korea, and such an attack could cause much damage to China. The Chinese are also vulnerable to Western meddling in Xinjiang and Tibet.

The Russians have received some precious gifts: the Ukraine was returned to Russia’s fold, Georgia was marginalised, the new nuclear arms treaty was better for Russia than anything they could have expected. At the same time, Moscow suffered a severe terrorist attack, reminding the Russians of their enemies’ ability to seed trouble. Notwithstanding, Turkey voted against the sanctions, proving its new regional role as a reliable new pivot for the Middle East.

The conflict between Turkey and Israel did not start with the Iran swap: it began earlier, in January 2010, when the Israeli deputy Foreign Minister Dani Ayalon invited the Turkish ambassador and publicly humiliated him. In Oriental fashion, Ambassador Chelikkol was offered a seat on a sofa lower the Ayalon’s armchair. Ayalon refused to shake hands with the ambassador and told journalists in Hebrew while the cameras were rolling: “We would like to show that he takes a lower seat and there is only the Israeli flag on the table”.

Or perhaps the conflict began a year earlier, in January 2009, when the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Erdogan, walked off the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Erdogan was annoyed by the attempt of a Western moderator to cut off his angry response to Israeli president Shimon Peres, who had justified the mass killings in Gaza.

Or perhaps it started in September 2007 when Israeli planes flew over Turkey to bomb Syria without as much as ‘by your leave’.

Perhaps it was even earlier, when Turkey began to assert its independence by discarding its century-old, shop-worn ideology of Kemalism. The secular nationalism of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was a trap for the former Empire. Brutish Kemalist Turkey was necessarily a member of NATO, an enemy to Arabs and Iranians, a docile client of the US, a loyal ally of Israel and a persecutor of the Kurds.

Now is the time to thank the Europeans for doing their bit to reform Turkey. In endless negotiations with Turkey, the European Union demanded a release of the Army’s iron grip on power. Without this gentle prompting from Europe, Turkey would still be ruled by a Zionist general or by a Zionist generals’ appointee. With their people freed from military rule, the Turks ended their violent secularism and regained peace with Islam and with their neighbours.

I visited Turkey last Christmas, and met with the activists who were about to depart for Gaza. Turkey is doing well: no economic crisis, steady growth, peace with the Kurds, a brave attempt to make peace with Armenians, and a perfect balance of religion and freedom. Whoever wishes to may go to a beautifully restored Ottoman mosque and pray, or to a café and drink very good Turkish wine. Girls are forced neither to shed their scarves nor to cover their arms.

“We lost Turkey”, said Robert Gates, the US Secretary of Defence, and blamed the European Union for refusing to accept Turkey. But we have to thank the Europeans for this refusal. We do not want Turkey in the EU; we need Turkey for ourselves, for the region.

There is a great new plan for creating an Eastern Union as a regional equivalent of the European Union. This is the right place for Turkey, at the head of this new formation. In a way, it will be restoration of the Ottoman Empire — to the same extent that the European Union is a restoration of Charlemagne’s empire. The difference is that Europe was fragmented for centuries, while our region was united until 1917. Even if full political union is a distant prospect, this is good start on the way to this worthy goal.

There are already free-trade treaties between Turkey and its Arab neighbours; the spiritual dimension is there, for Istanbul was the last seat of the Caliphate and the see of Constantinople Patriarchate. Now Turkey may establish a regional International Court to deal with regional problems — among others, with Zionist excesses. Europe is still not free from Zionist control and that is why the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court in The Hague are unsuitable places to try Zionist criminals. Moreover, their present location recalls the Eurocentric world of yesterday. A regional court may also convincingly deal with war criminals in occupied Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries. Great lawyers like Richard Falk and Judge Goldstone could be invited to sit in it.

The establishment of the International Court (East) would be a serious and realistic step towards further decolonization of the region and its future unification in an Eastern Union.

However, the Eastern Union will be as different from the Ottoman Empire as the European Union differs from the Third Reich, that previous attempt to unite Europe. It will be a voluntary union of sovereign states, where they all will preserve their unique cultures and traditions, a good neighbour to united Europe, to Russia, Iran and China.

Looking beyond the Middle East

The Union could peacefully spread well beyond the Middle East as well, reuniting its natural territories from Gibraltar to Danube. This natural territory was formed a long time ago, in the fourth century, when the mighty Roman Empire was divided into the Western Empire with its capital in Rome, and the Eastern Empire, or Byzantium, with its capital in Constantinople, as Istanbul was then called. The Byzantine Empire became the Ottoman Empire in 1456. Still, it is the same ‘great space’, the same united large civilisation of Muslims and Eastern Christians. People of Turkey and Greece, Serbia and Egypt have the same attitudes, they share their common values, they are more religious than their Western brethren, they object to the Western colonisation, American imperialism and Israeli Zionism.

The rising West could not vanquish the united East; so in order to colonise its lands, the West has tempted the nations with a futile dream of independence. This mirage of independence was but a trap: the new “liberated independent” countries became subjects of Western rule. We may compare that with a human body: if our arms and legs will become independent of our mind, they won’t manage well. Indeed all members of the single body, the Ottoman Empire, do not function well after the amputation, or independence, forced upon them.

That was the case with the Arabs during World War I. The Arab Revolt was brought forth by Lawrence of Arabia, a great agent of British intelligence. The Arab lands became much more dependent than they ever were, and now they are ruled by a plethora of sheiks, stooges and dictators. The only democratic regime in the whole Arab world is unhappy, besieged Gaza.

However, the Arabs were not the only victims of these Western policies. The British intrigues had caused Greece’s independence in early 19^th century, and afterwards rivers of blood and transfers had made this separation complete. But Greece is not at home in the EU, just as Greece of old was not at home in the Empire ruled from Rome. The recent financial crisis has proven it again: Greece’s roots and destiny are in the East.

No sane person would suggest that Greece should be incorporated in Turkey. Equally, none would suggest France be incorporated in Germany. However, France joined Germany to form the EU, and Greece may join Turkey to create the Eastern Union, eventually to embrace other Muslim and Orthodox Balkan provinces of the Byzantines, namely Albania and Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, even Romania and Georgia. All these countries may find the Eastern Union more suitable than the European one.

The Eastern Union may reach other countries and former provinces that were torn away and colonised by the Europeans in the 19^th century. Algeria is a country that needs this reconnection most of all, as this oil-rich land is run by a bunch of secular anti-religious and pro-Western generals just like Turkey was until ten years ago. Morocco with its outdated and unsuccessful monarchy that combines systematic torture of dissidents with abject Zionism, maverick Libya and fragile Tunis also need a broader framework which would not cancel out but instead reinforce their sovereignty.

The Eastern Union could also establish an area of joint interests with the Russians over the Caucasus. Russians have a problem over there: separation of these Russian provinces is too dangerous as it is likely to bring the hostile forces of NATO into Russia’s backyard. Keeping them against the population’s will is an expensive and unpopular policy. A Russian attempt to grant independence in all but name to Chechnya misfired as the small country immediately turned its territory into a base of armed raids into Russia proper. The Eastern Union could put paid to these insurgencies and bring peace and stability to the turbulent Caucasus. In return, the Union may recognise Russian interests in the Christian Orthodox sites.

Palestine will become a crown jewel of the Eastern Union. Demise of colonialism will end Zionism as well, for after all, Zionism would never win ground without European imperialist support. The Christians, Jews and Muslims of Palestine will have equal rights and duties in the Holy Land, forever free from political ambitions and ethnic rivalry.

Israel Shamir, a leading Russian Israeli writer, is a champion of the “One Man, One Vote, One State” solution seeking to unite Palestine & Israel in one democratic state. Shamir’s work and that of his contributors speaks to the aspirations of both the Israelis and the Palestinians seeking an end to the bloodshed, true democracy and lasting peace.

READ FULL STORY HERE

Coming up Tuesday at 9:00 am Pacific – 12:00 Noon Eastern – 16:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Tuesday evening.

“THE KEVIN BARRETT SHOW”
Israeli dissident writer Israel Shamir joins me Tuesday.

The Kevin Barrett Show is independently produced and hosted by Kevin Barrett and these shows are externally produced content. All externally produced content broadcast on No Lies Radio is the sole responsibility of the program-content producer and is not the responsibility of NoLiesRadio.org. Any questions or concerns should be directed to the content producer.

Coming up Tuesday at 9:00 am Pacific – 12:00 Noon Eastern – 16:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Tuesday evening.

“THE KEVIN BARRETT SHOW”

Webster Tarpley, author of 9/11 Synthetic Terror
and Obama: The Unauthorized Biography joins me Tuesday.

The Kevin Barrett Show is independently produced and hosted by Kevin Barrett and these shows are externally produced content. All externally produced content broadcast on No Lies Radio is the sole responsibility of the program-content producer and is not the responsibility of NoLiesRadio.org. Any questions or concerns should be directed to the content producer.

The Prisoner – Which Side Runs The Village?
Source www.youtube.com

READ FULL STORY HERE

18 July 2010 Tools Print Send Countries Iraq Themes Covert Action CentCom: Control of the “Great Middle East”

Iraqis inspect the badly damaged building of the Ministry of Justice. On 10 May there were more than two dozen bombings and shootings in Iraq that killed at least 85 people and injured at least 300 [1]. These were coordinated attacks, clearly by the same organization. The US response to this and other recent attacks is to delay plans for withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Obama’s election promise was to withdraw troops from Iraq by May this year. Not only is that obviously not going to happen but we learned after his election that “withdrawal” meant leaving 50,000 troops as ‘trainers’ as well as 4,500 special forces and tens of thousands of para-military contractors. Now, the US is reviewing even the slipped drawdown schedule out of concern for the security of the Iraqi people. Considering the million killed by the US and the four to five million refugees created by them I would not have thought that they would be bothered by fewer than one hundred dead in a little internal trouble. It might be said to be an improvement on US outcomes. As these attacks are providing the US with an excuse for delaying even its token withdrawal however, we need to think about who is behind them. I wrote [2] on 20 April that the probability is that the United States Central Intelligence Agency is behind these attacks, using local groups. It’s dirty tricks of this sort that the CIA does and is well financed by the US government to do. The US will never leave Iraq while there is oil in the ground, as I said [3] in April 2008. I’m amazed that the media and even the US anti-war brigade still have faith that leaving will happen. The US didn’t go there in the first place, nor build its fortresses, in order to leave. As it happens, however, the elections to keep their puppet in place did not go to plan. This latest series of attacks on top of a long series of lesser but still deadly attacks is not the work of a small group. It’s a large, well disciplined, well financed group with substantial support. The usual unnamed officials of unspecified nationality say that Al-Qaeda is doing the attacks. Well they would, wouldn’t they? Am I mistaken in recalling that General David Petraeus’s great success in Iraq was the elimination of Al-Qaeda? Or was that only while he was paying the Awakening Councils to go after them – if indeed Al-Qaeda was ever in Iraq at all. Since the Iraq invasion itself was based on a pack of lies there is no reason to believe anything that we are subsequently told about what is happening there or anywhere else where the US is involved. Actually, even people on the ground in Iraq often don’t know who is doing what and allegiances are constantly changing. It’s suggested that Al-Qaeda doesn’t want the Americans to leave because the cost of the occupation is damaging America. There are also Iraqi groups who have done well out of the occupation and would like to see the Americans stay. Whether any of these groups would be capable of attacks on this scale, or would be willing to carry them out, is doubtful. I don’t buy Al-Qaeda. That’s the standard US scare story and it’s worn out, like the dozens of accusations that Iran was behind the Iraqi resistance and supplying arms and bomb technology without a scrap of evidence. All propaganda and rubbish – like Saddam’s nuclear programme, his weapons of mass destruction, his collaboration with Al-Qaeda, his mobile chemical laboratories. All now officially certified lies. This is certain: the US invasion caused extraordinary devastation in Iraq and its continued presence is the problem for Iraqis. It’s most likely that because they have no intention of leaving, it’s the US itself that is behind the attacks. Or maybe the Israelis on their behalf, using locally organized groups. Yes, the Israelis are in Iraq and they have no love for Arabs. In 2005 they were reported to be training Kurds [4] in northern Iraq, now a semi-autonomous region. Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski, who was blamed for the atrocities in Abu Ghraib prison, said that she was shocked to meet an Israeli interrogator in Iraq [5]. There’s plenty of scope here for deniability on the part of both the US army and the CIA which sometimes gets asked questions. With the Israeli-US axis operating in Iraq anything is possible. The Israelis are beginning to pop up in trouble spots such as Georgia where they were “trainers” as well. The Israelis, CIA, US and UK military all regularly assassinate suspected militants along with innocent men, women and children. They consider no-one to be innocent. Nor would false-flag provocations be beyond the US-Israeli axis. On 8 June 1967 the Israelis attempted to sink the USS Liberty in an attack that left 34 American sailors dead and 173 wounded. The American Department of Defence colluded with Israel. It recalled fighter aircraft that had been launched from a nearby carrier to give assistance and probably co-planned the incident. The crew was threatened and warned not to talk about the attack. This was clearly a false flag attack that was bungled, the probable intention to blame the Syrians or Egyptians with willingness of the US to sacrifice its own ship and crew. For the story, visit the Liberty Veterans’ Association website or read their report [6]. The US-Israeli axis operates deeper than Americans or Europeans realize and we must be prepared to follow their thinking. Why should we believe that the Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, was briefed by the Pakistani Taliban – even if he believes it himself? Did they show him their membership cards, perhaps? Perhaps his Pakistani handlers were Taliban-certified by someone of reliable reputation and good character? I prefer a group backed by the CIA which is now publicly known to be active in Pakistan and who would like to supply evidence of the Taliban’s wish to attack the US itself. It justifies their atrocities and keeps the war going. Faisal Shahzad’s crude construct didn’t explode and it wasn’t going to. It wasn’t even a bomb – just some petrol cans, propane cylinders, fireworks and fertilizer of the wrong sort for bomb-making. A nuisance but harmless. He had never been trained by a real bomb-maker or if he was, the crude construct was intended to merely burn. Remember the USS Liberty when you read these accounts. These people think that it’s clever to get others to do their dirty work for them or better still, to suborn nationals of their target countries. Empires are only possible if collaborators with the occupiers can be found – and it’s never difficult. The Palestinians have Mahmoud Abbas, Iran had the Shah, Afghanistan has Karzai, Iraq has Maliki, the UK had Anthony Blair and Gordon Brown as well as the collaboration of most of the UK’s political class both in the US’s wars of aggression and its occupation of the UK with its bases. Our government has changed but as the French say, plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose (more change, more of the same thing). We are getting a constant stream of conflicting messages from the Americans and our own war criminals whom they have suborned: they’re leaving Iraq and Afghanistan soon but at the same time are in it for the long haul of 10 years or so. The purpose of this apparent nonsense is to give everyone something that they can hear and believe in while shutting out what they don’t want to hear. These messages have collaborating psychologists’ fingerprints on them. This is a critical time when we need men of honesty and goodwill who will act for the good of the UK and Europe. That means leaving the Middle East and detaching from America and its crimes. Some countries are finding out how leech-like this parasitic country holds on. The Japanese in Okinawa are finding that the US won’t remove its bases on request. Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium have called for the removal of US nuclear weapons from Europe. The US says that this is an issue for NATO to decide and an unnamed official says: “Single countries shouldn’t be coming forward with decisions or unilateral reviews” [7]. So there you have it. With the NATO First Act of the United States [8], getting the US, its bases and its nuclear weapons out of Europe will be found to be impossible when Europeans realize that it is necessary. This extraordinary Act has it that either the US Congress or host countries can have US bases closed or redeploy nuclear weapons. Well, already it seems that individual countries can’t ask for nuclear weapons to be removed from their soil. Once on the statute books, it’s a small step to make either into both – and that seems to be the case already. You might think that the present economic crisis and Middle Eastern war situation is bad. It’s actually much worse than that. Do you think that the US wouldn’t do in Europe what it’s doing in the Middle East? What it has done in Guantanamo? The crimes it has Europe’s politicians collaborating in? And who got the money from the worthless derivatives that our banks bought and European taxpayers are paying for? Europe’s politicians are either paralyzed in a state of wilful blindness and denial or they can view with equinamity the Wikileaks Collateral Murder video [see below] and think that they and their families will be looked after no matter what the crimes – like Anthony Blair. With America under economic and geopolitical pressures of its own making, the future for Europe is every bit as bad as it is for other countries that the US occupies. We should recall the crimes of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, among which was the torture and murder of about 7,000 persons in the Santiago Stadium in 1973, outlined in this Washington Post obituary [9]. What the newspaper neglects to mention is that the United States was Pinochet’s backer. For related articles, visit the Voltaire Network Iraq country file. Wikileaks “Collateral Murder” Share this Christopher King Consultant and lecturer in management and marketing. This author’s articles [1] Al-Qaeda in Iraq blamed for attacks; Al Jazeera, 11 May 2010. [2] Leaving Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan: our education by collateral murder; Redress, 20 April 2010. [3] Why the USA can’t leave Iraq; Redress, 8 April 2008. [4] Former covert Israeli forces ’training Kurds in Iraq’; The Guardian, 2 December 2005. [5] Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski Met Israeli Interrogator in Iraq; APFN Radio, 20 February 2006. [6] A Report: War Crimes Committed Against U.S. Military Personnel, Liberty Veterans’ Association; 8 June 1967. [7] Clinton to Urge NATO Revamp, Address European Nuclear Concerns, Bloomberg Businessweek, 22 April 2010. [8] H.R. 2797, The NATO First Act, Washington Watch. [9] A Chilean Dictator’s Dark Legacy, The Washington Post, 11 December 2006.

READ FULL STORY HERE

READ FULL STORY HERE

As Prime Minister, he was credited with engineering Malaysia’s rapid modernisation. During his term in office, he was considered by some as one of Asia’s most influential leaders. Mahathir was also widely known as an outspoken critic of Western-style globalization.

SEE FULL BIO HERE

Will be archived here after the broadcasts.

“THE KEVIN BARRETT SHOW”

Email your questions or comments now.

Gilad Atzmon (Monday) and Dr. Robert Bowman (Tuesday)!
Special 7/7 London Bombing Show Wednesday!

The Kevin Barrett Show is independently produced and hosted by Kevin Barrett and these shows are externally produced content. All externally produced content broadcast on No Lies Radio is the sole responsibility of the program-content producer and is not the responsibility of NoLiesRadio.org. Any questions or concerns should be directed to the content producer.

Every Saturday – Anti-War – Progressive Truth Teach-in
Plus: Economic Collapse Teach-in combined special.
Coming up at 9:00am Pacific — 12 noon Eastern — 16:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Monday.


G20 Progressive Speakers Spark Hope!
‘G20 Shout Out’ with Amy Goodman, Naomi Klein, et al. On Friday, June 25, 2010…the night before the Toronto militarized police attacked the peaceful protesters at the G20, some of the most famous progressive and environmental speakers gave hope and a plan of action to a overflowing crowd at Massey Hall.

These speakers spoke against a backdrop of the world leaders having started arriving for the G8 and G20 meetings amidst a massive security crackdown that marked the most expensive three days in Canadian history. Large swaths of Toronto’s downtown core had the appearance of a police state, with an estimated deployment of over 19,000 security personnel—nearly five times the number at the G20 in Pittsburgh last year. The security price tag was around $1 billion, and some predict the total summit cost will surpass $2 billion. Over 1000 protesters were arrested. Many were beaten. Among them were journalists.

Webster Tarpley on CIA hand in Iranian scientist mystery

RussiaToday | June 09, 2010

There are new videos that show conflicting stories about the missing Iranian scientist. An Iranian man, identified as a missing nuclear scientist, has said he has been abducted and taken to the United States. The scientist, Shahram Amiri, disappeared while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June 2009. Webster Tarpley says that there is strong evidence that shows this was a CIA kidnapping with the help of Saudi Arabia.

Iran scientist Shahram Amiri – video transcripts

The man featured in both videos claims to be the scientist who disappeared on a trip to Saudi Arabia in 2009, but the story told is different in each

Here are the transcripts of two videos allegedly featuring Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri, who disappeared last year while on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

In the first, broadcast by Iranian television, a man purporting to be the scientist says he was kidnapped by the US and is now living in Arizona, in what the Iranian government says is evidence he is being held in the US against his will.

In the second, posted hours later on YouTube, a similar-looking man claiming to be the scientist says he is happy in the US.

VIDEO BROADCAST ON IRANIAN TELEVISION

“I, Shahram Amiri, expert and researcher of Malek-e-Ashtar Industrial University, am currently in the American city of Tucson in the state of Arizona.

The man in the first video says he was abducted and drugged by the CIA

I was kidnapped last year (2009) in the holy city of Medina on 3 June in a joint operation by the terror and abduction units of the American CIA and Saudi Arabia’s Istikhbarat [intelligence agency].

They took me to a house located somewhere that I didn’t know. They gave me an anaesthetic injection. When I became conscious I was in a big [voice interrupted] towards America.

During the eight months that I was kept in America, I was subject to the most severe tortures and psychological pressures by the American intelligence investigation groups.

And the main aim behind these investigation teams and the pressure imposed on me was to make me take part in an interview conducted by an American media source and claim that I was an important figure in Iran’s nuclear programme and I had sought asylum in America at my own will.

And (to say) while seeking asylum I took some very important documents and a laptop with classified information on Iran’s military nuclear programme in it to America from my country.

The main aim from this was to impose political pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran and in fact condemning (Iran) and proving lies that America has been constantly saying against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

I demand the organisations active in human rights issues in Iran and other countries to follow up my case seriously because I have unrightfully been abducted in a third country and have been brought to the US and I demand them to apply all their efforts to help me get freed and return to my dear country, Iran.”

VIDEO POSTED ON YOUTUBE

“I, Shahram Amiri, a citizen of the Islamic Republic of Iran, am in America and intend to continue my education here. I am free here and I assure everyone that I am safe.

The man in the YouTube video says he wants to stay in the US

My purpose in today’s conversation is to put an end to all the rumours and accusations that have been levelled at me over the past year. I am Iranian and I have not taken any steps against my homeland.

My wish is to see Iran and its people rising to the peaks of progress and success.

I do not hold any political views and have no interest in the political subjects and discussions of any state and country. I am not involved in weapons research and have no experience and knowledge in this field.

I know that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran will take care of and protect my family. I want them to know that I have never left them and have always loved them.

I am asking everyone to stop presenting information that distorts the reality about me.”

READ FULL STORY HERE

Nuclear Scientist Shahram Amiri Kidnap video allegation on Iran TV.

microman780 | June 08, 2010

The Iranian government says it has evidence that one of its nuclear scientists was abducted and is being held in the US against his will.

Shahram Amiri disappeared a year ago while on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

Iranian television broadcast a video purporting to show the scientist saying he was kidnapped and is now living in Arizona.

Hours later, another video posted on YouTube appeared to show Mr Amiri saying he was happy in the US.

In the video shown on the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting network, the man says he was forced to say he defected with a laptop full of evidence about Iran’s nuclear secrets and that he was being used to put pressure on Iran.

The video showed a man wearing headphones and talking to his webcam.

He says he was in the Saudi city of Medina as part of a Muslim pilgrimage when Saudi intelligence officers drugged and kidnapped him.

“When I became conscious, I found myself in a plane on the way to the US,” he said.

“Since I was abducted and brought to the US I was heavily tortured and pressured by US intelligence.”

Neither the US nor the Saudi Arabian governments have made any comment on the allegations that he was abducted and taken to the US.

In March US news channel ABC ran a report quoting unnamed US officials that said Mr Amiri had defected and was helping the US compile intelligence on Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.

They suggested that he had given them valuable information about the Iranian nuclear programme, including the recently revealed centrifuge enrichment plant outside the city of Qom.

The secret plant was revealed in September last year, just days before a meeting in Geneva between Iran and the permanent five members of the UN Security Council.

The US and its allies believe Iran is trying to acquire a nuclear weapon, but Tehran denies the charge.

Shahram Amiri

shahramamiri2010 | June 07, 2010

shahram amiri

jonashabab | June 29, 2010

Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri sending message to his family in
shahram amiri
Shahram Amiri,the Iranian nuclear scientist who was kidnapped near one year ago by CIA and Saudi’s Stekhbarat,confirms he has been kidnapped and has just escaped the american security forces and is hiding somewhere in Virginia,he confirms his 1st video was all true and his 2nd video was a written confession by american and was all lie.he asks international agencies to put pressure on american regime to release him and says he did not and will not betray his country and people till the last drop of blood

Shahram Amiri sending message to his family

MsNeusha | June 30, 2010
Shahram Amiri sending message to his family 30 june 2010

Part 3 of 7 MV Rachel Corrie Passengers Press Conference in Dublin.
Good history, overview and demise of the MV Rachel Corries Maiden Voyage on the way to Gaza, hijacked and washed up in Ashdod.

Source www.youtube.com

Switzerland, June 9, (Pal Telegraph)

The European campaign to End the Siege on Gaza announced that preparations are being conducted on a Swiss vessel to participate in the “fleet of Freedom 2,” which is being prepared by the “fleet of freedom” coalition, and expected to launch into the Gaza Strip in the up-coming weeks.

Anwar Al Gharbi, representative of the campaign in Switzerland, said that at the end of a global daily sit-ins week before the Human Rights Plaza at United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, called by the association of “rights for all” and the “European Campaign” – with the participation of more than twenty Swiss Assemblies and political parties; including “Centre Party”, “Party of the Public”, “The Socialist Party,” “Greens Party”, and “Labour Party” for this initiative – where the beginning of preparing the Swiss vessel to join the “fleet of Freedom 2” was announced.

Gharbi added in a press statement today that “following the announcement of launching the process of equipping the Swiss vessel , a major fund raising campaign was launched too; where the vessel was showered with the support of dozens of political, artistic and athletic figures from Switzerland.

The head of the “rights for all” Swiss association, and the member of the European campaign, explained that this ship has big support from prominent figures in Europe, pointing out that the campaign is witnessing wide contributions, especially after the Zionist massacre committed against the “fleet of freedom,” which was sailing towards the Gaza Strip with 750 international peace activists on board, along with about ten thousand tons of humanitarian aid.

Read entire article here

READ FULL STORY HERE

This video shows you scenes from The Lone Gunmen pilot episode which tells the story of a false flag operation by the US Goverment to crash an airliner into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. This aired on March 4th 2001, 6 months before the real thing! A must watch!

Source www.youtube.com

Footage from Rachel’s interview conducted by Middle East Broadcasting Company on March 14th, 2003, two days before she was murdered by the Israeli Defense Forces.

Source www.youtube.com

* Published 08:37 04.06.10

* Latest update 17:38 04.06.10

Passengers of ‘Rachel Corrie’ reject Israel-Ireland deal
Irish government offers MV Rachel Corrie ship to divert to Israeli port of Ashdod instead of Gaza; Foreign Ministry: Israel doesn’t want a confrontation with the Gaza-bound ship.
By Barak Ravid and Haaretz Service Tags: Israel news Gaza flotilla

Passengers on board the MV Rachel Corrie ship have rejected a proposed agreement made between the Israeli and Irish governments to divert the ship to the Israeli port of Ashdod instead of the coast of Gaza.

Following the passengers’ rejection of the agreement, the forum of seven high ranking ministers decided to go ahead with the plan to stop the ship and take it over, as was done with the previous Gaza flotilla.

Over the last few days the Foreign Ministry has been trying to come to a diplomatic solution with the organizers of the ship, under the Irish government’s mediation.

During negotiations, the ship’s passengers emphasized that they were willing to undergo a security check by the Israel Defense Forces in the ocean to verify there were no weapons on the ship, but demanded they then be allowed to pass to the coast of Gaza.

Israel refused, and demanded the security check take place in the Ashdod port and that the ship’s cargo would be transferred from there to the Gaza Strip, under the supervision of passengers and Irish diplomats.

Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheal Martin, issued a statement on Friday on the failed agreement.

“On Friday morning, an understanding was reached with the Israeli government whereby the Rachel Corrie would have approached the Israeli exclusion zone before accepting diversion to the Israeli port of Ashdod. At Ashdod, the cargo would have been unloaded and inspected under the supervision of UN and officials from the Irish Aid Division of my Department.

“The entire cargo, including what is understood to be 550 tonnes of cement, would then have been transported to Gaza. Two persons from the Rachel Corrie would have been permitted to accompany the cargo to the Israeli border crossing into Gaza at Erez.

“In my view, such an arrangement would have offered a useful precedent for future humanitarian shipments, pending the complete lifting of the blockade,” he said.

Martin then said that those on board the MV Rachel Corrie, “after careful consideration,” rejected the agreement, and emphasized that he “fully respects their right to do so and to continue their protest action by seeking to sail to Gaza.”

He also called on Israel to refrain from using force on the passengers of the Rachel Corrie ship.

“If, as is their stated intention, the Israeli government intercepts the Rachel Corrie, the Government demands that it demonstrate every restraint. Those on board the Rachel Corrie have made clear their peaceful intentions and have stated that they will offer no resistance to Israeli forces. Based on these assurances, there can be no justification for the use of force against any person on board the Rachel Corrie.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Friday emphasizing that Israel does not want a confrontation with the Gaza-bound ship the MV Rachel Corrie.

“We have no desire for a confrontation. We have no desire to board the ship. If the ship decides to sail the port of Ashdod, then we will ensure its safe arrival and will not board it,” said the Foreign Ministry Director-General Yossi Gal.

The MV Rachel Corrie is headed directly for the Gaza Strip with hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid and is expected reach Israel’s 20-mile exclusion zone within the next day, a spokesman for the pro-Palestinian group organizing the mission said on Friday.

“Israel is prepared to receive the ship and to offload its contents.After an inspection to ensure that no weapons and war materials are on board, we are prepared to deliver all of the goods to Gaza,” the Foreign Ministry’s statement read.

“Representative of the people on board and relevant NGOs are welcome to accompany the goods to the crossings. We will work with the UN and international organizations to ensure that all the goods are used for the benefit of the people of Gaza.”

The Foreign Ministry’s statement was issued following a discussion between the ministers of the forum of seven on Friday afternoon in Jerusalem. The statement seems to hint that Israel’s attempts at coming to a resolution with the ship’s passengers have reached a dead end.

According to a government source in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the foreign ministry’s director-general Yossi Gal to invite the foreign press and to issue the statement, in order to make Israel’s stance perfectly clear to the ship’s passengers and to the international community.

The MV Rachel Corrie had initially planned to reach the Gaza Strip sometime this week, despite an Israel Navy raid on the first six ships in the humanitarian aid convoy on Monday that left nine people dead and several more wounded.

Despite reports that the 1,200-ton ship was heading back to Ireland due to technical difficulties involving its two accompanying vessels, Free Gaza Movement spokeswoman Greta Berlin said the ship was on schedule and had no plans to stop in any port along the way.

Free Gaza’s legal adviser, Audrey Bomse, earlier Friday said that the ship was planning to return to Ireland in the coming days due to Israel’s “sabotage” of the two passenger boats meant to carry journalists. Bomse told Army Radio that the vessels sustained such serious technical damage while docked in Greece last weekend that they would not be able to sail for weeks.

Bomse was quoted by Army Radio on Friday as saying that the ship would only attempt to breach the Gaza blockade once accompanied by the two passenger vessels. She also said that the activists would refuse any diplomatic solution offered by Israel.

The legal adviser reportedly told Army Radio that her movement’s goal was not just to bring aid to Gaza, but to send a message to Israel. Activists would not stop sending these ship to Gaza until Israel agree to lift its blockade, the radio quoted Bomse as saying.

The Rachel Corrie’s trip to Gaza is sponsored by two non-governmental organizations, from Ireland and Malaysia. On board is Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former United Nations deputy secretary-general Denis Halliday. Also on board are Malaysians from a group sponsored by the former prime minister of Malaysia.

Read entire article here

Helen Thomas one of the last honest reporters out of Washington mocks the official story held by the White House delivered by Gibbs.

Source www.youtube.com

June 01, 2010 — Secretive and elite – the Bilderberg group, which unites some of the world’s most powerful people, has been meeting behind closed doors for decades. An investigative journalist Daniel Estulin has just revealed to the European Parliament all he claims to have discovered about the ‘Bilderbergers’, and expects the results of his findings to have the ‘effect of an atomic bomb’

Source www.youtube.com

object style=”height: 344px; width: 425px”>

From: gazafriends | May 28, 2010 | 313 views

Loading…
The Challenger 1, Free Gaza passenger boat among the Freedom Flotilla, while holding for the other boats to join, close to Cyprus waters, has been contacted via radio by a Cipriot Police Helicopter. This video is recording the converstation. May 28th, 2010

Shane Dillon (Mate on Challenger 1 commented :
“it is rather shocking that an EU Country refused to let members of another EU Country’s Parliament into its port on a humanitarian mission.”

FreeGaza Update from Challenger 1
From: gazafriends | May 28, 2010 | 306 views

Loading…
Challenger 1 | Update | May 28, 2010 7:30pm
Update given by Ewa Jasiewicz.

Source www.freegazafriends.org and www.youtube.com

Turkey warns Israel against stopping the Freedom Flotilla
Source www.youtube.com

Fake al Quaeda Actors EXPOSED!
Source www.youtube.com

Coming up Tuesday at 9:00 am Pacific – 12:00 Noon Eastern – 17:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Tuesday evening.

“THE KEVIN BARRETT SHOW”
Tuesday Hear a Live Interview with William Pepper — Human rights attorney, proponent and prospective Commissioner, New York City 9/11 Ballot
Email your questions now.

Live interview with Human rights attorney extraordinaire William Pepper, proponent and prospective Commissioner, New York City 9/11 Ballot Initiative; author, Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King, Jr. In November 1999, William Pepper won a jury trial finding that James Earl Ray was innocent, and that U.S. military and intelligence officials conspired to murder Martin Luther King, Jr. He is currently working with the NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative to get a real investigation of 9/11 with subpoena power, and is in line to become one of the Commissioners. Last month William Pepper spent ten sixteen-hour days preparing a legal defense of the Spanish Court’s initiative to prosecute George W. Bush for war crimes. He writes: “I believe that this case may be the most important case in my lifetime for the advancement of international human rights law and condemnation of these atrocious policies and practices which go back to the divine right of kings, perpetuated by fascism. ” This show was aired live in the summer of 2009, but is still relevant today.
Deadline for emailed questions is 9pm Pacific Time, Monday, June 8th. Not all emailed questions will be answered on the air.

The Kevin Barrett Show is independently produced and hosted by Kevin Barrett and these shows are externally produced content. All externally produced content broadcast on No Lies Radio is the sole responsibility of the program-content producer and is not the responsibility of NoLiesRadio.org. Any questions or concerns should be directed to the content producer.

This was a No Lies Radio News Live Video Broadcast done on April 27, 2010 from Berkeley, California.

It is now archived below.

An evening with Michael Parenti
— Book Launch of ‘God and His Demons’

Launch of ‘God and His Demons’ and talk by award winning, internationally acclaimed author Michael Parenti. In his brilliant new book, God and His Demons, Michael Parenti’s critical reading of the Old and New Testament throws light on the religious origins of contemporary cruelty… God and His Demons is a tour de force, combining serious scholarship and political passion with wry wit. –James Petras, Bartle Professor Emeritus, Binghamton University, NY

Share ]]> http://noliesradio.org/archives/15365/feed 0 http://noliesradio.org/archives/14906 http://noliesradio.org/archives/14906#comments Fri, 23 Apr 2010 22:09:24 +0000 noliesradio http://noliesradio.org/?p=14906 Coming Up Thur April 22nd – 7:00 pm Pacific – 10:00 Eastern – 02:00 GMT

This show was a No Lies Radio News Special and was Video-Casted LIVE on April 22, 2010. It is now archived below.

Truth Emergency International:
…. Censorship, Propaganda, and American Empire

THE EMPIRE, POWER, AND PROPAGANDA LECTURE SERIES:
An evening with Project Censored. Please join the co-editors of Censored 2010, Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff, for a public talk and discussion on the ongoing Truth Emergency and media censorship in the US.

From Project Censored article “State Crimes Against Democracy”
by Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff:
“New research in the journal American Behavioral Scientist (Sage publications, February 2010) addresses the concept of ‘State Crimes Against Democracy (SCAD). Professor Lance deHaven-Smith from Florida State University writes that SCADs involve highlevel government officials, often in combination with private interests, that engage in covert activities for political advantages and power. Proven SCADs since World War II include McCarthyism (fabrication of evidence of a communist infiltration), Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (President Johnson and Robert McNamara falsely claimed North Vietnam attacked a US ship), burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist in effort to discredit Ellsberg, the Watergate break-in, Iran-Contra, Florida’s 2000 Election (felon disenfranchisement program), and fixed intelligence on WMDs to justify the Iraq War…Credible scientific evidence brings into question the possibility that some aspects of the events of 9/11 involved State Crimes Against Democracy. Psychologically this is a very hard concept for Americans to even consider. However, ignoring the issue in the context of multiple proven SCADs since World War II seems far more dangerous for democracy than the consequences of future scientific inquiry and transparent, fact-based investigative reporting.”

What happened to the 2.3 Trillion missing the day before 9/11?
Source www.youtube.com

Every Saturday – Anti-War – Progressive Truth Teach-in
Coming up at 9:00am Pacific — 12 noon Eastern — 17:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Monday.

10 year old arrested twice by Israeli soldiers and beaten.
Senior producer Nora Barrows-Friedman reports for the entire hour from the Israeli-occupied West Bank of Palestine. Nora will speak with a traumatized 10 year old arrested twice by soldiers and beaten so badly that he was hospitalized. We’ll hear from the troubled child, his family, and from a child development expert on the multiple impacts the illegal occupation is having on Palestinian children. From A Flashpoint Radio Presentation.

After hours of his release Aladdin had to be taken to hospital after suffering health complications. He was tortured by the military during weeklong detention.
Aladdin participates and helps organizing the weekly anti wall nonviolent protests at the village of Al Masara every Friday. For three years now, Al Masara villagers stage a weekly anti wall protest every Friday.

Doctors at a Hospital in the southern West Bank city of Hebron diagnosed Omer Aladdin with cuts and broses due torture by the military. Aladdin was admitted to the hospital for 24 hours.

READ FULL STORY HERE

Every Saturday – Anti-War – Progressive Truth Teach-in
Coming up at 9:00am Pacific — 12 noon Eastern — 17:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Monday.

Exclusive on the spot protest interviews with Cindy Sheehan, Ray McGovern, Jon Gold, Ann Wright, Susan Harman, and Mike Ferner.
We confronted John Yoo today at the University of Virginia!
These interviews were broadcast live on March 19, 2010 by No Lies Radio News.

by N

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Did You Know?
TheBaByG
Source www.youtube.com
February 09, 2010

Did you know that by boycotting Israeli products, you can singlehandedly lift the siege on Gaza. Following is a list of products to boycott.

Coca Cola
Maggi Garnier
Tommy Hilfiger
Kotex
Helena Rubinstein
NOKIA
Banana Republic
Selfridges &Co
Wonderbra
La Roche-Posay
Nursery World
Lancôme Paris
Victorias Secret
Léggs
La Mer
Harper Collins
Hillshire Farm
Kia Ora
Home Depot
Georgia Lightning
Estee Lauder
Buitoni
DIM
Perrier
Just My size
Lindex
Aramis
origins
HEMA
Perscriptives
Vichy
Playtex
Structure
Aoste
Bryan
Lovable
BallPark
Dohwe Egberts
Kotex
Mast Industries
Nur die
The White barn candle
River Island
Pauls
Johnson&Johnson
Sanez
McDonalds
Kraft
IBM
Ambi Pur
Jimmi Dean
ICQ
Levi’s
Intel
Redken
Kleenex
Carrefour
Calvin Klein
SKY
Revlon
Huggies
Kiwi
TIME
Nestle
Sunkist
Pepsi
Frutopia
Star
Kit Kat
Loreal
Libby’s
Kimberly-Clark
Sara Lee
Gap
Boss
Gossard
KFC
Schweppes
Armani
20 century Fox
Ralph Lauren
Donna Karan
Maybelline
Starbucks
The Times
Danone
Disney
Marks & Spencer

For more info;
http://home.pacbell.net/halnet/Boycot…

http://youlis77lafine.wordpress.com/2…

http://www.missionislam.com/images/fr…

And EVERYBODY on the planet should see this video; It is Norman Finkelstein, is an Jewish American political scientist and author and if ANYONE can explain what is going on in Palestine, it is he:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpMpHg…
I know it is a little long, but it will answer a lot of your questions. It WILL be worth your time.

Thank you.
xoxoxo Carrie

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Every Saturday – Anti-War – Progressive Truth Teach-in
at 9:00am Pacific — 12 noon Eastern — 17:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Monday.

Ignoring Torture Claims and Questionable Evidence, New York Jury Convicts Pakistani Scientist Aafia Siddiqui
A New York jury has convicted the US-educated Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui of attempted murder for shooting at US forces while jailed in Afghanistan in 2008. None of the Americans were injured, but Siddiqui was shot and wounded while in US custody. Human rights groups have long alleged that Siddiqui was forcibly disappeared by Pakistani authorities in 2003 and interrogated and tortured at the behest of the United States. In her testimony, Siddiqui claimed to have been held in a US secret prison. We speak to Siddiqui family spokesperson Tina Foster of the International Justice Network and Petra Bartosiewicz, an independent journalist who has been closely following Siddiqui’s case. [includes rush transcript here] A Democracy Now Production.

Dahr Jamail

(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: The U.S. Army)t r u t h o u t, February 6, 2010 On December 27, in the eastern Kunar region of Afghanistan, ten Afghans, eight of whom were schoolchildren, were dragged from their beds and shot by US forces during a nighttime raid. Afghan government investigators said the eight students were aged from 11 to 17 years. This incident is but one example of countless atrocities US military personnel have carried out in the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, US military personnel torturing detainees in Abu Ghraib, Iraqi civilians suffering the violence meted out by US forces, or US forces detaining schoolchildren in Baghdad, the list of atrocities is seemingly endless.Dr. Stjepan Mestrovic, a professor of sociology at Texas A&M University, has written three books on US misconduct in Iraq: “The Trials of Abu Ghraib: An Expert Witness Account of Shame and Honor,” “Rules of Engagement?: Operation Iron Triangle, Iraq,” and “The ‘Good Soldier’ on Trial: A Sociological Study of Misconduct by the US Military Pertaining to Operation Iron Triangle, Iraq.” He has three degrees from Harvard University, including a Master’s degree in clinical psychology, and has been an expert witness in psychology and sociology at several Article 32 hearings, courts-martial, and clemency hearings involving US soldiers accused of committing crimes of war in Iraq, including the trials of prison guards involved in the Abu Ghraib scandal. Dr. Mestrovic’s books meticulously document how the US Army, as an institution, has become dysfunctional, and how illegal rules of engagement (ROE) are issued by officers and politicians at the top of the Army’s hierarchy, but only low-ranking soldiers are punished for carrying out those same rules and orders. As an example, in one of the several hearings Dr. Mestrovic has attended as an expert witness, US soldiers openly admitted they had shot a 75-year-old man who had emerged unarmed from his house, but because the soldiers were following the rule to shoot all “military aged males,” neither they nor their officers were charged for that death. Truthout recently conducted an extended two-part interview with Dr. Mestrovic. Truthout: Can you describe the process that occurs within the US military that leads to a mindset that allows atrocities to occur? How is it that soldiers commit atrocities like murdering an unarmed 75-year-old Iraqi man? Dr. Mestrovic: This mindset is rooted in American history and might be peculiar to it. By way of metaphor, it might be characterized by a line from a You Tube video, “Startrekking Across the Universe,” wherein the fictional Captain Kirk says: “We come in peace, shoot to kill.” In the classic work, “Democracy in America,” Alexis de Tocqueville captured this seeming contradiction in American “habits of the heart” with regard to Native Americans, slaves and all those deemed as “other.” Tocqueville points out that unlike the Spaniards, English or French conquerors, the Americans went out of their way to pass laws and enact treaties to justify their mistreatment of others. So, for example, slavery was considered immoral, but was legal. Similarly, extermination of the Indians was immoral, but the government signed treaties before it broke them. So-called “witches” were executed only after they were given trials and assigned lawyers. And so on. It seems that Tocqueville captured an important aspect of American culture that continues to this day. Fast-forwarding to World War II, the US engaged in numerous acts that some historians and lawyers believe could have been called war crimes had the US lost that war. Examples include the firebombing of German and Japanese cities, and of course, dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Fast-forwarding further to the Vietnam War, the US established policies of “search and destroy” missions in “free-fire” zones. The important point is that these acts were justified by all sorts of legal jargon about “status-based” targets (which apparently means that the target is considered “hostile” simply by existing, and therefore constitutes a potential threat). This sort of legalizing of acts that otherwise might be considered atrocities has continued in the current, long war on terror. For example, it is no secret that John Yoo and other White House lawyers went out of their way to make torture seem lawful. In this and other acts, the government continues to behave in the manner described by Tocqueville. Focusing directly on the incident in question, there is no doubt that the Army regarded the killing of the unarmed Iraqi man as lawful. The ROE for that mission was to kill every military-aged Iraqi male on sight, and that is what the soldiers did. The victim was pre-designated as a “status-based” and “hostile” target based upon existing American military law. Some may regard the killing of the man as murder, because he was unarmed and did not show any signs of hostile intent. None of that matters from the point of view of the mindset we are discussing here. In fact, all the military as well as civilian attorneys with whom I have spoken agree that had the soldiers carried out their ROE that day and killed on sight all the Iraqi males they encountered that day, no charges would have been pressed against any of them. Their “mistake,” from the mindset being discussed here, is that they showed mercy and took some of the Iraqis as prisoners, and then killed them. From their point of view, they were still carrying out the original ROE by killing the prisoners. In fact, they were told not to take any prisoners. But from the legal standpoint of the American cultural mindset, there are legal rules for treating and killing prisoners, which are different from killing “status-based” or pre-designated targets. It would take us too far astray to discuss the further contradictions in American lawspeak. The more important point is that legal scholars and lawyers in the courtroom cannot agree on the terminology that should be used to describe what happened. It is as if it is an event that literally cannot be put into words. I should mention just some of the legal morass. For example, technically and legally, the Iraqi males were not “prisoners” or “prisoners of war” (who have rights under the Geneva Conventions) but were designated as “detainees.” To be sure, there are rules about the treatment of “detainees,” but these are different from the rules pertaining to real “prisoners of war.” No one is entirely certain about the legal status of “detainees.” The overall point is that the mindset which led to this atrocity is that the victims were pre-designated as targets in a lawful manner. But this mindset only raises numerous legal, cultural and moral issues, and does not close the door to them. Truthout: Explain why, through your research, you call the institution of the US Army “dysfunctional?” Dr. Mestrovic: One could start with the observation by Samuel Stouffer in his 1949 classic, “The American Soldier,” which still holds. Namely, Stouffer observed that the US Army, like all armies, is archaic and authoritarian in its structure while its soldiers come from a democratic society. Democracy and authoritarianism do not mix, and lead to dysfunction. Stouffer found that commissioned officers are treated almost like royalty whereas low-ranking soldiers are treated as less than full Americans. I have found numerous, glaring examples of dysfunctions in my research based upon this basic contradiction that was uncovered by Stouffer. For example, I found it shocking that US soldiers at Abu Ghraib slept in jail cells (just like the detainees did) and did not have access to toilets, not even portable toilets. Part of the democratic spirit is that all persons should have equal access to basic human needs. Shocking testimony by the supply officer at the Abu Ghraib trials was that the soldiers at Abu Ghraib did not have access to suitable or sufficient food, water, light or sleep. From Stouffer’s perspective, this state of affairs can be described as positively medieval: the “leisure class” (commissioned officers) looked after its needs and interests, but did not look after the interests of its low-ranking soldiers. So much attention has been paid to the photographs regarding the mistreatment of “detainees” at Abu Ghraib, that hardly anybody has noticed the Army’s mistreatment of its own soldiers during this mission. In fact, I have come across systemic dysfunctions in numerous war crimes cases. Sleep deprivation is a huge problem. Sleep should be considered a necessity like food and water, because chronic sleep deprivation for soldiers leads to errors in judgment, including moral judgment. But soldiers told me that they routinely slept less than four hours per day. Another issue is PTSD. I have come across numerous cases of soldiers who were diagnosed with PTSD who were not treated and who were sent out on combat missions despite this diagnosis. Why aren’t commanders and commissioned officers mindful of the basic, human needs of their soldiers? Part of the answer might be that in a truly democratic society, individuals would protest and demand their rights to basic human needs, including sleep and treatment for PTSD. But the Army is an authoritarian society, so apparently soldiers have no recourse but to obey. These are among the observations that have led me to conclude that the Army is dysfunctional. Truthout: Please give some of examples of this. Dr. Mestrovic: I’ve already given some examples in relation to Stouffer’s observations about the American soldier in combat. Let me give a few more examples with regard to military law. In general, the US soldier gives up many Constitutional rights by joining the Army. The court-martial system is as archaic and authoritarian as the rest of the army structure. Military judges and prosecutors are not the equals of the accused, but are his or her military superiors. That fact alone changes the dynamics of the military legal process. Let me put it this way. It is a cruel irony that alleged terrorists such as KSM who will be tried in civilian US courts will be granted more Constitutional rights than soldiers who are accused in the military court-martial system. Another cruel irony is that several corporate law firms have volunteered their services, pro bono, in defense of alleged terrorists at Guantanamo and elsewhere, in the interests of protecting Constitutional rights. But to my knowledge, not a single corporate law firm has volunteered to defend the Constitutional rights of US soldiers. Most people do not think about the huge discrepancy between the democratic structure of American society versus the authoritarian structure of the American military. I should end with a quote from a soldier interviewed by Stouffer: “We just want to be treated like Americans again.” I believe Stouffer’s observation still applies. (To be continued in Part 2.)

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Mysteries in Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s ‘armed assault’ case

Source www.youtube.com