By Stephen Gowans – The 4th Media. Syrian government forces may or may not have been responsible for the killing of 108 civilians at Houla.

Witness accounts point to militias that may have been acting independently of the Syrian government.

One account describes the killings as avenging a rebel sectarian attack on an Alawite village.

All the same, no witness account has been independently verified.

The events are, in the words of a UN monitor, “murky”.

The US government, nevertheless, has reached far beyond the evidence to blame the Syrian government for the atrocity, a brazenly hypocritical public relations assault on Syria.

In light of the serial massacre of hundreds of Pakistani and Afghan civilians, including children, by US drone strikes, the US government has no credibility as a self-appointed champion of the innocent.

Examining the conflict with reference to US foreign policy goals, and the objectives of other parties, it is likely that the Assad government’s opponents are depending on armed conflict and the exploitation of the public relations opportunities the conflict provides to meet their goal of regime change.

Damascus, on the other hand, has more to gain from working out a modus vivende with its internal opposition than trying to win a shooting war with armed rebels that have the backing of the formidable diplomatic and material resources of the United States and wealthy Gulf petro-monarchies.

Goals

In the Syria conflict, the goal of:

• Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf Cooperation Council Sunni petro-monarchies is to replace Syria’s Alawite-dominated state with a Sunni leadership;

• The United States and its Western allies is to force the Russia-allying, Iran-supported, Hezbollah-backing economic and Arab nationalist Syrian Ba’athist regime to relinquish control of the Syrian state. Ultimately, Washington would like to see a satellite regime in Damascus that ousts Russia from its naval base on the Mediterranean, breaks ties with Iran, cuts support to Hezbollah, accepts Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, and opens its economy to US corporations and investors. Whether Washington can realize all these ambitions is unclear, but they do appear to be ambitions the US state embraces;

• The Sunni Islamists and al-Qaeda is to overthrow the Assad government, which they think of variously as “atheist” and “heretical”;

• The exile opposition and Free Syrian Army is to replace Assad as local rulers, courting US backing by professing commitment to Wall Street and State Department interests;

• The Syrian Ba’athist government is to survive in the face of determined opposition and with few allies.

In light of these goals, it is very unlikely that the opposition forces arrayed against the Syrian government are sincerely committed to the Annan peace plan. Since the plan seeks to find an accommodation between the Syrian government and its internal opposition without calling for the government’s dissolution, it fails to satisfy the opposition goal of regime change.

The plan does, however, promise a pathway to the Syrian government’s goal of political survival, and therefore it is Damascus, of all parties described above, that is likely to have the greatest commitment to making the plan work.

On the other hand, being committed to Assad’s overthrow, and not accommodation with him, the opposition is more likely to favor rhetorical commitment to the plan while continuing to pursue its regime change goal through armed struggle, relying on material, diplomatic, and moral support from the US and its allies.

This thrusts Damascus onto the horns of a dilemma. If it fails to respond to opposition attacks it puts its survival at risk. If it does respond, it is accused of violating the peace plan.

Houla

Atrocities being accustomed events in war, it was highly likely that one would eventually arise that Washington and Europe could take advantage of. Pinning blame for an atrocity on the Syrian government would allow Washington to escalate pressure on the Ba’athists, embarrass their supporters into withdrawing or weakening support, and strengthen public backing of stepped up intervention in Syria.

The events surrounding the Houla massacre are, in the words of UN monitors, “murky”, and the identity of those who carried out the killings of 108 civilians, many at close-range, remains unclear.

Witness testimony, none of which has been independently verified, points to “pro-government militias” as the culprits, which may mean loosely organized sectarian gunmen acting independently of Damascus.

One witness told The Wall Street Journal that “the attacks…might have been to avenge a rebel assault on a nearby Alawite village a day earlier.” [1]

While Syrian forces had been engaged in combat with armed rebels in the area, UN monitors found that fewer than 20 people were killed by government artillery fire. [2] And “rebel fighters,” according to The Wall Street Journal, “admitted putting up a stronger fight with government forces…than had been claimed initially. That fighting appeared to be what the government blamed for its artillery barrage.” [3]

Despite the event’s “murkiness” and evidence that it was possibly related to Alawite gunmen avenging an earlier sectarian attack, Washington blamed the massacre directly on Damascus, squeezing in a denunciation of Iran at the same time.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called the Houla events an “absolutely indefensible, vile, despicable massacre against innocent children, women, shot at point-blank range by regime thugs,“ adding that the perpetrators were “aided and abetted by the Iranians, who were actually bragging about it over the weekend.” [4]

What the Iranians had actually done was point out that they have provided military aid to Syria, what the US and Gulf monarchies provide to the rebels trying to overthrow the Assad government.

Neither Nuland, nor her fellow compatriot practitioners of Goebbels’s art, have worked themselves up into high dudgeon over the 175 children and 828 civilians killed by US drone attacks in Pakistan since 2004 [5] — absolutely indefensible, vile, despicable killings of innocent children, women, killed from the safe distance of a Nevada warehouse by US regime thugs brandishing computer joy-sticks. And in the case of these killings there was no murkiness about who the killers actually were.

US atrocities don’t mitigate the Houla massacre, nor excuse the Syrian government if it was involved. The killings were indeed indefensible, vile, and despicable. But there are two points here.

Unlike the case of the far greater number of civilians blasted away by the United States, it is unclear whether Damascus was involved in the Houla killings. It may have been. But the evidence is hardly compelling and points just as strongly to perpetrators acting independently of the government.

The US track record is littered with indefensible, vile, despicable killings of innocent children and women by US forces—on a far greater scale than happened at Houla. Were there strong evidence that Damascus pulled the trigger, Washington’s denunciation of the Assad government would be manifestly hypocritical. But in the absence of such evidence, Washington’s apportioning of blame for the atrocity to the Syrian government is not only hypocritical but blatantly political—another volley in a war to put Washington more firmly in the driver’s seat in Syria.

Stephen Gowans

Endnote
1. Nour Malas and Jay Solomon, “Syria crisis deepens divisions”, The Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2012.

2. Nour Malas and Joe Lauria, “Western nations expel Syrian diplomats”, The Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2012.

3. Malas and Solomon

4. Malas and Lauria

5. “Obama terror drones: CIA tactics in Pakistan include targeting rescuers and funerals”, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/February 4, 2012 cited in Seumas Milne, “America’s murderous drone campaign is fuelling terror”, The Guardian (UK), May 29, 2012.

By Yoichi Shimatsu. – Custer’s Last Stand – Bloggers have described Beijing’s media brawl between CCTV Dialogue anchor Yang Rui and Charlie Custer, editor of ChinaGeeks, as a “flame war” between two hot-headed individuals.

Thecontroversy is hardly a personal matter when taking into account the agenda and insider connections of Custer’s employer and paymaster, Link Media/Link TV. Ample evidence and the back story, in fact, reveal Link Media Inc. connections with intelligence services.

Whatever prompted “Custer’s last stand”, his personal record does not indicate that he’s a shagadelic spy like Austin Powers, but just that he’s a “useful idiot” for media higher-ups who need suicide bloggers to make exploding noises to impress their government funders.

Charlie’s an English teacher from Harbin (according to Yang Rui’s blog) and, looking over the past two week’s unsightly mess, Custer has failed to become the next Jared Cohen, the State Department’s online brat who fomented the Jasmine Revolution.

Custer, the news commentator under a woollen cap, is listed as a regular contributing expert to LinkAsia, which produces a news program on DirecTV satellite in the United States. His reports for LinkAsia half-hour news program include:

- “Killings Expose China’s Hatred of the Wealthy”

- “Press Controls Tighten Over Beijing News (and) Times”

- “Fired Up Over China’s Limits on Fun TV”

- “China Faces Real Name Use on Sina Weibo”

- “The Saga of Wang Lijun”

- “Sina Silences Rumors While Angry Artist Speaks Out”

- “Rumors Abound on Chinese Internet”

- “Beijing Gears Up for an Atheist Christmas”

The last-cited story is a bit puzzling as a critique of China, since Macy’s also celebrates and cashes in on atheist Christmas shopping binges. As for hatred of the wealthy in China, was it not Deng Xiaoping who said: “To get rich is glorious”? Tragic end to Fun TV? “Supergirl” should have quit when it was ahead, instead of reeking of rigor mortis like “American Idol”.

Whatever the merits of his negative reporting, in his eyes there’s not a lot of good news emanating from one of the world’s cleanest capitals located in the world’s fastest-rising economy, when a cup of coffee is affordable to just about anyone and where poverty is diminishing, as opposed to cities like Athens, London, Sendai and Detroit.

Here again, as with Melissa Chan, balance didn’t have to be tossed out the window since it was never there in the first place.

If Beijing is really such a repressive and miserable hellhole, Ms Chan should be thankful to be in “free” Doha, which has the world’s highest per-capita income, surplus funds to donate weapons to Syrian rebels, peacefully governed under sharia law, and where not even a National People’s Congress exists to disturb an absolute monarchy.

Collect the dole and shut up – Qatar’s not a bad deal compared with China, where people actually have to work for pay – with the only hitch being you have to a Qatari citizen or an Al Jazeera staffer to qualify.

Al Jazeera feed and Soros cash. Notably, Link TV is the carrier for Al Jazeera channel in the U.S. The placement fees from Al Jazeera and ads from its fleet of royalty-owned corporations like Qatar Air, Qatar gas and Qatar Foundation contribute to Link Media’s $8.56 million in annual revenues.

Could the cash from the Gulf State be influencing Link TV’s editorial policy? A quick look at Link’s programming schedule reveals a gusto for the Arab Spring, which was jointly sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the Emirate of Qatar. (Non-Arabic speakers should note: The definition of an “emir” is “military commander of the jihad.”)

Link Media Inc., which is registered in San Francisco as a not-for-profit organization, receives grants from:

- Open Society Institute (OSI), funded by billionaire George Soros

- Luce Foundation, a Republican Party dominated group that funds conservative causes (The late Henry Luce, publisher of Time and Life, was an ardent supporter of  the Chiang Kai-shek regime in Taiwan, who funded the infamous “China Lobby” that promoted the “Two-China policy” and also backed repressive dictatorships in South Korea and South Vietnam.)

- Parsa Community Foundation, created by Iranian exiles, many of them supporters of the Shah

- Attar Supporting Organization, which promotes Muslim causes in the Caucasus

- other of its supporting foundations have reputedly served as conduits for funding from the CIA.

The Link operations are headed by its president Kim Spencer, who earlier co-founded Internews Network. Another co-founder of Internews is his wife, Evelyn Messinger, head of Internews Interactive who also served as the first Electronic Media Director for the Soros Foundation.

LinkAsia contributors besides Custer include: David Bandurski, head of the China Media Project at University of Hong Kong whose programs have received Soros funding; Pakistani Wajahat Khan, Shorenstein fellow at Kennedy School of Government; Cindy Sui, with BBC, AFP, SCMP and Central News Agency (Taiwan); and one of its advisers is Minky Worden, a program director with Human Right Watch.

Media Soldiers and Propagandists. A brief look at the background of Spencer and Messinger during their years at Internews offers insights into media operations on behalf of Western intelligence agencies. The statements in quotes are from its own publicity materials.

In 1994 “Internews launches the three-year Media Development Program to support the institutional and economic development of print and broadcast media in Russia. MDP grants support the first legal resource center for media in Russia.”

“With Sarajevo under siege by the Yugoslav National Army, Internews and the Soros Foundation  run the Balkan Media Network, an early version of an electronic bulletin board and email system that connects 250 independent media organizations as well as ordinary citizens in the former Yugoslavia with the rest of the world.”

In August 2000 “The American Iranian Council and Internews sponsor a historic reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City where members of the Iranian parliament meet with Members of the US Congress for the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.”

In December 2004 “Independent media help lay the groundwork for Ukraine’ Orange Revolution, one of several ‘color revolutions’ in the region, including Georgia’s 2003 Rose Revolution.”

“Internews has developed special programs for training journalists how to report on conflict (Reporting for Peace ['a special training program for journalists who work in regions of conflict']). Meanwhile, Internews has expanded its activities into Africa, Asia and the Middle East.”

Its hefty budget for media-prompted subversion came from  the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) under the USAID, and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as well as intelligence-related branches of NATO members France, Germany, Canada, Britain and Greece.

Wired Magazine noted in 1995: “The organization’s peculiar funding cycle follows a flow chart that might raise a few eyebrows among current American non-profits toiling hard for a few tax dollars.

Although born and bred a nonprofit, Internews funds for-profit TV enterprises half a world away, thanks to multimillion-dollar contracts from the Agency for International Development (USAID), effectively the US government’s foreign aid bank.

Along with this generous funding comes grants from more than a dozen foundations, including one handsomely endowed by financier-philanthropist George Soros.

Over the last few years, no other nonprofit, developing, post-Soviet media organization has garnered more American aid dollars than Internews.”

Democracy for hire, or subversion for corporate takeovers of foreign assets? For those who are curious about why the White House and George Soros are allied with jihadist Qatar the answer is: control over energy and banking of petrodollars.

Four-Letter Expletives. Aside from the spooky side of media, let’s discuss rhetorical style for a minute. The cast of operatives from Soros and the shadowy arms of the State Department need to improve its presentation, especially during heated debates.

The outrage expressed in reaction to anti-foreign comments was cheap melodrama. Crying like an injury faker in a football match does not win sympathy in the media arena; it only proves that you’re a boy not a man.

As a journalist friend said about the tweet barrage against Yang Rui “They can dish out abuse, but they can’t take it.” The terms used by Custer’s friends over blogs and tweets frequently included expletives describing the male sex organ and excrement; while one particularly hate-filled tweet advocated the strategic placement of a fist.

These vulgar remarks only reflect the mindset of teenage hoodlums or prison guards in Guantanamo. My advice to overgrown adolescents who lack a basic sense of decency: Keep your fisting to yourself.

One parting shot: Charlie Custer did everyone a service by speaking his mind, though he should have done it with more tact, considering the image of what’s been called (by Americans) The Ugly American abroad.

Should his work visa be revoked? That’s up to the Chinese bureau that enforces press standards for foreign journalists and also the applicant Link TV, which is not in a great position right now to defend press privileges.

Should he be allowed to stay on a tourist visa?

What he’s done may constitute a failing in press standards, but Custer hasn’t committed a crime to be denied visitor entry, at least not one that I know of.

Then again, does he really want to stay in Beijing?

Like Melissa Chan, he seems to love life in the capital, but why then did he never have anything good to say about the place? It’s up to him, since he’s lucky enough to be free to explain himself to officials and choose what to do, compared to billions of poor people who can never afford the price of an air ticket.

Yoichi Shimatsu

Yoichi Shimatsu is former editor of the Japan Times Weekly and an occasional guest speaker on the Dialogue program.

The Soros-Made “New World Order” Takes Shape at the UN

By Wayne Madsen – Via The 4Th Media. Major multinational corporations and the financial and non-governmental organization network of George Soros have taken effective control of a number of United Nations functions within the UN Secretariat and within the organization’s specialized agencies. The goal of this alliance is to re-draw the map of the world for the benefit of the global elites and the “top 1 percent.”

The United Nations, which once prided itself on transparency, has now become a bureaucratic behemoth where decisions are made in closed door meetings attended by diplomats, mostly from English-speaking Western countries; corporate representatives; NGO officials tied to Soros and other entities like the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations; and current and former CIA officers, some of whom act under U.S. State Department cover. It is a fact of life that today a number of UN agencies and elements are funded by private money.

Although South Korean Ban Ki-moon is the Secretary General of the UN, his most important deputies represent the interests of NATO and its allies. The Undersecretary General for Political Affairs is B. Lynn Pascoe, a former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia and Malaysia and is thought by many UN staffers to have links to the CIA. The Undersecretary General for Safety and Security is Gregory Starr, a former Director of the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service who is also thought to have close links to the CIA.

The Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Planning and Policy Coordination is Robert Orr, the former Director of Global and Multilateral Affairs at the U.S. National Security Council on which the CIA is represented. The Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is Anthony Lake, a former U.S. National Security Adviser.

The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations is Herve Ladsous of France who has served as French ambassador to Indonesia and China and who is a pro-NATO Atlanticist.

Perhaps no where is the Soros and CIA influence felt more than in the UN Development Program (UNDP), which is headed by Helen Clark, a former Prime Minister of New Zealand. However, Soros’s operatives are heavily present in every UN agency except for Peacekeeping Operations but it, too, is an ultimate target for the multi-billionaire Hungarian Jew who once cooperated with the Nazi occupation forces in wartime Hungary.

Soros is very close to former UN Deputy Secretary General and UNDP administrator Mark Malloch Brown of Great Britain. While UN Deputy Secretary General, Malloch Brown, now Lord Malloch Brown, resided rent-free at Soros’s estate in Westchester County, New York. The UN’s Global Compact is a brainchild former Secretary General Kofi Annan, who is now charged with easing the government of Bashar al Assad from power in Syria.

Pushing the Global Compact, Malloch Brown, while UNDP administrator, invited multinational corporations to “use their purchasing power to help develop small and medium-sized enterprises across the developing world.” The Global Compact essentially gives multinational corporations a say in how projects in developing countries are carried out.

The UN has been holding a number of closed-door meetings and seminars at which the partition of UN member states has been discussed. Most of the meetings have been held under the direction of the UN Interagency Framework for Coordination on Preventive Action (the Framework Team or FT). The FT brings together representatives from a number of alphabet soup UN offices and specialized agencies, including:

DESA – Department of Economic and Social Affairs

DPA – Department of Political Affairs

DPKO – Department of Peacekeeping Operations

DOCO – UN Development Operations Coordination Office

EOSG – Executive Office of the Secretary General

FAO – Food and Agricultural Organization

ILO – International Labor Organization

OCHA – Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

OHCHR – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

OSAPG – Office of the Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide

PBSO – Peacebuilding Support Office

UNDP – UN Development Program

UNESCO – UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

UNHABITAT – UN Center for Human Settlements

UNICEF – UN Children’s Fund

UN WOMEN – UN Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

UNHCR – UN High Commissioner for Refugees

UNEP – UN Environment Program

UNDEF – UN Democracy Fund

UNFPA – UN Population Fund

WFP – World Food Program

WHO – World Health Organization

World Bank

IMF – International Monetary Fund

DPI – Department of Public Information

OSAA (Office of the Special Advisor on Africa)

DDA – Department for Disarmament Affairs

UNODC- UN office on Drugs and Crime

Much of the work of the FT is carried out under the direction of an American, Gay Rosemblum-Kumar. She heads up the Conflict Management Capacity-Building Project and the Peacebuilding Portal. While the names of these groups appear benign, they are at the center of a global plan by Soros, his NGOs, the CIA, and the global bankers to redraw the map of the world to suit the needs of multinational corporations and the United States and NATO.

Many FT meetings include speeches by Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor who has encouraged international R2P (responsibility to protect) intervention in Libya, Sudan, Syria, and other countries. The FT also relies on a professional trainer in “Conversation” and “Non-violent Communications” (NVC). He has overseen “outsourcing transition,” i.e., informing employees of their lay-offs and “benefits” packages at Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab, and Bank of New York Mellon. From advising companies on how to inform employees that their jobs are finished, the individual in question now advises the UN on how to tell entire countries that they are “finished.”

The FT also advances the work of President Obama’s “information czar” Cass Sunstein; his wife Samantha Power of the U.S. National Security Council; and Gene Sharp, the Albert Einstein Institution’s developer of the “themed revolution” concept.

The FT has also trained certain activists around the world, particularly in developing and other countries with pro-western governments, to use “the system” to effect change and has advised them “not to protest against their government.” The entire FT operation at the UN is bankrolled with Soros money.

Perhaps the most alarming aspect of the FT’s work is aimed at dividing existing nation-states into smaller entities. At a recent FT meeting titled “Nepal in Transition,” it was clear what strategy is being employed to carry out such divisions. The division of Nepal, with the ultimate goal being the marginalization of the powerful Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), foresees “identity federalism,” the first step before actual secession of federal components.

A number of Nepalese political parties and movements recently signed an agreement that would create an “identity-based” federal republic in Nepal.

The UN’s chief promoter of the strategy is Ian Martin, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General who has headed UN missions in Nepal and, most recently, in Nepal. Under the UN plan, Nepal would be transformed into a polyglot federal republic based on indigenous groups, nationalities, castes such as the Dalit, and Muslims.

Martin has been involved in creating “federal” structures in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Libya. The latter has seen the eastern province of Cyrenaica, with its capital in Benghazi, proclaim its autonomy from Tripoli.

Some UN participants in the talks on Nepal spoke of the need to “eliminate” the Maoists in Nepal. Robert O. Blake, the Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, and who has been linked to the CIA, participated in the Nepal conference. Blake reportedly helped engineer the February 2012 coup in Maldives that drove President Mohamed Nasheed, ironically a Soros favorite, from power.

The coup, which ushered into power a pro-Islamic government said to be backed by former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, could set the stage for a Maldives comprised of autonomous atolls, with the United States able to acquire military bases in certain southern atolls as part of its encirclement of China policy.

Sri Lanka is also a target for the identity federalism engineers. During the 2008 presidential campaign, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama received large campaign donations from front groups for the Tamil Tigers, a guerrilla force that favors an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka and which is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

As a way of thanking the Tigers for their support, the Obama administration, Soros, and the International Peace Institute of Norway (which has been called a front for NATO, Soros, and the CIA and which supported the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [LTTE] during their long civil war against the Sri Lankan government) have been pushing for a federal system in Sri Lanka that would create a Sinhalese, Tamil, and Muslim federation, with secession following.

A number of Norwegians are quietly pushing the identity federalism solution, some of whom, particularly Professor Johan Galtung, are Soros favorites..

To augment its identity federalism initiatives, Soros NGOs are also involved in creating a number of “partition studies” programs at major universities with international relations programs.

Myanmar is also a target for the identity federalists and partition specialists. The UN and Soros goal is to split Myanmar into various ethnic-based nations. Some of these nations would then provide the United States with military bases from which it can engage in intelligence, insurgency, and other operations in southern China. The human rights issue in Myanmar and China has been used by Soros as a tool to gain influence in both nations.

The ultimate goal of the EU / US / Japan / Australia / Canada / New Zealand / Soros alliance is the division of India, Russia, Indonesia, and China into smaller nations.
Wayne MADSEN, Strategic Culture Foundation

By Christof Lehmann – nsnbc. In a report published on Tuesday, the New York Times stated that US-President Obama, since he has come to office, has assumed an “unprecedented role in personally overseeing a shadow war against Al-Qaeda, including making final decisions whether to place individuals on a “kill-list”"

One has to give it to the propaganda experts at the White House and their extended reach into US-Main Stream Media. One could hardly have twisted reality in a more convoluted way to cover over the US-Administrations unprecedented utilization of and cooperation with terrorist organizations. The main criminal has his Thanatos sexed-up and public support as  “hero” and protector of US citizens and the “free world” boosted, while covering over the fact that he is most likely to be “the” US-President who has an unprecedented record of cooperating and utilizing international terrorist organizations.

Death is Sexy and Sex sales – If the population has been made war-horny enough it sales every lye. The sad side of the story is that most US / Western Citizens are so indoctrinated that one is tempted to say to them: “You Bozos, You buy it every time !” while another, almost equally large part of the populous finds gratification in being “intellectual enough to understand the perversion” without doing anything about it. So which of the two groups do you belong to ? Sorry – No ill intention meant – just frustration over your placidity in the face of murder.

So here´s a little wake up call for those who are drooling and dripping from sexual fantasies about Obama´s sexed-up Thanatos.

One of the really sexy operations would be that of the killing of Osama bin Laden ? Sorry to say that the guy had been dead and buried for almost ten years already, so, unless you also are suffering from necrophilia.. ?

A large part of the other “heroic homicides” are to be counted under the category of unmanned drone attacks in Pakistan – Afghanistan – Yemen – Somalia. Wedding-parties ?Or Al-Qaeda ? It´s your guess. If you find the fact that Obama personally ordered the hoopla mutilation of young brides, the bursting of young grooms into unrecognizable BBQ-Ready pieces of flesh that smell of guts and cordite sexy go on buying into the New York Times propaganda narratives.

The fact that he is violating the territorial integrity of a sovereign nation, crimes against peace and other kinky stuff, committing a crime that falls under the category of “Nuremberg Principles” is of course extremely sexy too. I mean, Nazi´s were hanged and your hero is getting away with it ! Wrap a US – UN – NATO flag around you and hoopla, you are a member of the sexiest hooligan club world wide. Full Spectrum Global Perversion. To secure yourself a full body orgasm – think about that Obama “personally decides whether to attack a terror suspect when the suspect´s family is present”.

The one good thing about the last point is, that if Obama ever has his own personal Nuremberg Process we don´t have to waste millions of taxpayer money to clarify questions about command responsibility.

Now here is an irony. The name of the press secretary of the White House is Jay “Carney”. Does that remind you of the Latin root “carne” too ? Well when “Carney” was asked about a report according to which it is policy to count all men of military age in a strike zone as militants unless there is intelligence to the contrary, he replied that ” Obama takes his responsibility enormously seriously, and that is why he has pursued the fight against ((“brides, grooms, little boys and babies to exterminate those pests”)) Al-Qaeda.

See “that” is almost so sexy that it is too much already. But don´t come prematurely, it´s getting better yet.

The best death wish sex is always accompanied by twisted mind games and small, delicate and evil twists. While he is getting away with making clowns believe that he is a anti-al-qaeda super-hero he keeps a perfect poker-face while he is installing the chief Al-Qaeda terrorist Belhadj as Military Governor of the liberated Tripoli and Commander of the Free Syrian Army.

Ok, I understand, this is too much, you may come now. Was is good, dear ?

Christof Lehmann

30.05.2012

Gatilov : We Are Categorically against Any Intervention in Syrian Conflict from the Outside

Russia reiterated its rejection for any proposals at the UN Security Council authorizing military intervention in Syria.

Gennady Gatilov, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, said in press statements to the Russian Interfax News Agency: “We have always said that we are categorically against any intervention in the Syrian conflict from the outside, as this would only worsen the situation and would lead to unpredictable consequences both for Syria itself and the region on the whole.”

Gatilov underscored that Russia calls for broader international discussion on settling standoff in Syria and Kofi Annan’s, the UN Envoy to Syria, six-point plan.

Gatilov added that Russia thinks any new UN Security Council pressure measures on Syria are premature, asserting that Russia will veto initiatives on foreign military interference in Syrian situation in UN Security Council.

Gatilov declared that Russia does not exclude a new mechanism for supervising the implementation of Annan’s plan, citing the necessity for allowing Anna’s plan implementation the needed opportunity, calling on all foreign players, including the western ones, to put pressure on opposition.

By James Petras. – Jamespetras.  Capitalism and its defenders maintain dominance through the ‘material resources’ at their command, especially the state apparatus, and their productive, financial and commercial enterprises, as well as through the manipulation of popular consciousness via ideologues, journalists, academics and publicists who fabricate the arguments and the language to frame the issues of the day.

By Finnian Cunningham – The 4Th Media. The US-led economic war on Iran has been dangerously ratcheted up with the launching of a powerful new computer virus targeting the Islamic Republic’s nuclear research facilities and other vital commercial sectors, including the oil and banking industries.

Previously, the Iranian economy and scientific research centres have been hacked with the computer malware or virus known as Stuxnet. That sabotage of Iranian facilities is widely believed to have been the work of American and Israeli military agencies.

Now an even more destructive virus appears to have been unleashed. The so-called Flame malware is said by internet security experts to be 20 times more disruptive to computer systems than Stuxnet. Compared with Stuxnet, which inflicted serious Iranian technical damage nearly two years ago, the latest malware can be seen as virtual weapon of mass destruction.

Again, American and closely collaborative Israeli military agencies are believed to have launched the latest salvo of cyber missiles.

Iranian and Syrian computer systems are reported to be among the main targets of Flame. Although other countries have this week also reported malfunctions from the Flame virus, including Austria, Hong Kong Hungary and United Arab Emirates, precedent would point to its origin as US intelligence, with the motive of adding yet more economic pain on Iran.

Independent internet security firms say that there is no obvious commercial motive for the malware, for example reports of blackmail attempts, and that the most likely instigator of the virus are “state agencies”.

Over the past year, the US has been stepping up bilateral economic sanctions on Iran, aimed at crippling the country’s central banking and oil sectors that are the backbone of the national economy.

Next month, the US and the European Union are set to tighten the economic embargo on Iran even further with new sanctions lined up to hit the country’s international oil trade – some 80 per cent of Iran’s national revenues derive from oil and gas sectors.

Moreover, the US, Britain and France, together with Germany and Israel, have been twisting the pressure on Iran at the resumed P5 + 1 talks this month over its nuclear programme, demanding that the country rescind its legal right to enrich uranium.

Tehran has steadfastly refused to suspend its uranium enrichment facilities, which it says it is legally entitled to as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and which are solely for civilian applications, such as energy production and medical radioisotopes.

The evidence certainly points to “regime change” being the thinly veiled objective of the Western powers and that the nuclear issue is a manufactured controversy with which to browbeat Iran. But the war of words goes way beyond browbeating. The US-led international campaign against Iran is tantamount to an all-out covert war, a war that is criminal in its conduct on several counts.

Military threats, invasion of Iranian territory with unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, financial and economic sanctions, and now intensified computer virus attacks on Iran’s telecommunications. This is all but a war of aggression without troops on the ground.

With mainstream news media becoming ever more servile to Western government foreign policy agenda, it is important to remind ourselves of realistic legal and moral perspective here.

Can you imagine how the US, Britain, France or Israel would react if Iran were to shut down their computer systems because it objected to their unlawfully persistent arsenals of actual weapons of mass destruction? Such an Iranian cyber attack would be met with ferocious retaliation or at best would be considered reprehensible, but such a move by Iran would certainly have a lot more legal and moral right than the Western campaign of belligerence towards Tehran.

The panoply of aggression towards Iran is emanating from Western powers that have murderous blood on their hands from the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Somalia, among other places, and this campaign is based on a repetition of outlandish allegations over “weapons of mass destruction”. The latest sabotage of Iranian society through computer malware should be seen, and roundly denounced, as yet another war crime by US allies that is pushing the world ever closer to escalation of war.

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By Rachel Boothroyd – Venezuelaanalysis. Liverpool, May 28^th 2012 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela’s Vice-minister for African Foreign Relations, Reinaldo Bolivar, has described relations between Africa and the South American nation as “better than ever” as the country’s capital took part in celebrations in aid of UNESCO’s seventh worldwide “Africa week”. The minister also announced that both the Republic of Congo and the Republic of Angola would soon be opening up embassies in the Venezuelan capital.

Speaking from the capital’s Plaza Bolivar where a wreath was laid in commemoration of international Africa Day, Bolivar expressed his desire to see this burgeoning relationship move into the development of a series of bilateral projects in areas such as mining, agriculture, art and technology.

“Today Venezuela-Africa relations are at their best point in the history of the Republic and without a doubt they will move into a higher stage where these relationships translate into mutual benefits for our people,” he said.

The minister went on to praise the celebrations as a huge success, achieved partially as a result of the growing relationship between Venezuela and African governments; a “connection” which Bolivar said has increased substantially since 2005.

“African presence and awareness relating to this continent are present in all sectors of the Venezuelan people and in all academic sectors of the country…the principal function of this celebration is to create awareness amongst all people,” he concluded.

The service in Plaza Bolivar was also attended by Algerian Ambassador, Rachid Bladehane, who thanked the Venezuelan government for its efforts to improve ties between Venezuelan and African peoples.

“We are really thankful because it is a great demonstration of affection and friendliness,” said Bladehane.

Events were held throughout the week in Caracas as part of the celebrations, including academic talks on African history and culture and African food, dance and art exhibitions. The weeklong event culminated in an African music concert in the public boulevard of Sabana Grande, Caracas.

By Pepe Escobar. Pentagon head Leon Panetta told ABC News that the US is “ready” to attack Iran. It depends on US President Barack Obama giving it a go. Will he or won’t he?

Nobel Prize winner and Drone Godfather Obama has been busy “justifying the ‘just war’ theories of Christian philosophers”, as Ray McGovern graphically put it – and as attested by the New York Times orgasmically promoting its piece “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will’.

Apparently there’s no Iranian “kill list’ so far – apart from scientists being whacked by the unsavory association of the Israeli Mossad and the Iranian Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) terrorist outfit. And there’s no evidence – yet – Obama considers attacking Iran a “just war”. On the contrary; Obama might flaunt a nuclear deal with Iran as a major foreign policy victory on the way to re-election. But – just in case – the Pentagon is keeping up the pressure.

Enrich, and you’re history
Panetta regurgitated the same old fallacy perpetrated ad infinitum, since at least 2006, by the neo-cons, the Israel lobby and US corporate media, according to which Iran is about to build a nuclear bomb like … tomorrow. “We will do everything we can to prevent Iran from developing a weapon”, Panetta said. Once again, it doesn’t matter that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, plus 17 US intelligence agencies have stressed this is not the case.

Panetta’s move must be seen as the Pentagon preemptively bombarding the P5 + 1 talks about the Iranian nuclear program – now scheduled for a third round in Moscow on June 18. As Gareth Porter has shown, there can be no deal as long as Washington insists on absolutely ditching the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which Iran subscribes (See US hard line in Iran talks driven by Israel, Asia Times Online, May 29, 2012). The US position amounts to never allowing Iran to even enrich uranium for civilian purposes.

Panetta also insists that the “international community’s been unified” about it. That’s nonsense. Not only the BRICS group of emerging powers but also the whole Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has insisted Iran has a right, like any other country that subscribes to the NPT, to maintain a civilian nuclear program.

Now let’s turn to the Iranian position. Iranian nuclear chief Fereydoon Abbasi said, “We have no reason to retreat from producing the 20% because we need 20% uranium just as much to meet our needs,” according to Iranian state TV.

Not only that; Iran will start building two new nuclear power plants in 2013, and its sole active nuclear reactor is now close to full production levels.

Under the NPT, a member state with a consistent civilian nuclear program essentially may also acquire a nuclear weapons capability – what is also defined as a “nuclear option”. Japan, Brazil and Argentina, for instance, all NPT member states, have maintained their “nuclear option” for decades. They could ditch the NPT and build a nuclear bomb in a few months if they wanted to. They won’t. But Washington, on a mission from God, believes Iran will.

The fact is Tehran is not doing anything illegal in its pursuit of nuclear technology. It has even agreed to talk in Baghdad about suspending its 20% uranium enrichment. But then Iranian negotiators found out in Baghdad that for the US, the red line – no enrichment at all – is definitive. At best, in exchange Iran might receive supplies of medical isotopes.

So Tehran won’t be moved from its position; it will only consider suspending its 20% enrichment if the ultra-harsh Western oil embargo plus the financial war via banking sanctions is reconsidered.

By the way, Iran’s Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani said that Tehran has already activated an alternative payment clearing system to SWIFT – thus foiling another vector of Washington’s relentless economic war. What this means is that Iran, BRICS members Russia, India and China, plus Iran’s trading partners in the developing world are moving one step beyond in their flight from the US dollar as global reserve currency.

Sanction me baby one more time
Even in the – unlikely – possibility that the leadership in Tehran suddenly decided to stop all uranium enrichment, and kill the whole nuclear program on the spot, Iran would still be under US sanctions. The sanctions have practically nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear program. It’s all about regime change.

By 401-11, Congress in the US last Friday approved a resolution that goes even beyond “crippling” sanctions.

US sanctions are bound to remain forever unless President Obama certifies to the extremely unpopular US Congress (14% approval rate), “Iran has released all political prisoners and detainees; ceased its practices of violence and abuse of Iranian citizens engaging in peaceful political activity; conducted a transparent investigation into the killings and abuse of peaceful political activists in Iran and prosecuted those responsible; and made progress toward establishing an independent judiciary.”

There’s more; Obama also has to certify, “The government of Iran has ceased supporting acts of international terrorism and no longer satisfies certain requirements for designation as a state sponsor of terrorism; and [that] Iran has ceased the pursuit, acquisition, and development of nuclear, biological, chemical, and ballistic weapons.”

Into this mire of wishful thinking steps Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey. He told CNN on Monday, “the military option should be considered”. Oops, but that refers to that other war in the making – in Syria. General Dempsey said he would prefer for the “international community” to effect regime change in Syria, but – just in case – the Pentagon is ready to pounce (“Of course, we always have to provide military options.”) The NATOGCC compound is barely containing its shrieks of joy.

So what’s it all about, Barack? So many wars to choose, so little time till Re-election Day.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His most recent book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).

He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com

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By Daoud Kuttab – DFLP. This week, two totally different cases saw real progress towards resolution due to persistence, a focus on achievable results and the use of nonviolent means.

Palestinian prisoners and supporters of their just and reasonable requests in Palestine, the Arab world and the international community saw a successful resolution to their demands. The end of administrative detentions was the aim when Adnan Khader and Hana Shalabi began the protests with a pair of hunger strikes followed by Thaer Halahla and Bilal Diab.

This was followed by 1,600 prisoners demanding the end of solitary confinement, permission for family visits, especially for Gazan families denied such visits since 2007, and an agreement to allow prisoners to follow up educational pursuits. Thousands of prisoners refrained from eating for over 28 days while the administrative detainees went into their third month of a dangerous hunger strike.

The selfless action of the prisoners touched people around the world who began numerous campaigns on social media and in front of UN agencies, and other forms of protests. In Amman, 15 young people, including two women, started their own hunger strike in a tent outside the Professional Associations Complex.

They were especially supportive of over two dozen Jordanians in Israeli prisons, including Abdullah Barghouthi. The image of these supporters wearing light brown outfits resembling the prisoners uniforms went viral on line as they exchanged their own pictures with a faceless, brown-wearing sketch.

Government officials in Jordan, Egypt, the US and the EU, as well as the secretary general of the UN, were forced to take a stand and pressure the Israelis to accept the demands and use international standards for incarceration. The end was an Egyptian government-brokered deal that responded to most demands by Palestinian prisoners.

In another incident, Jordanian media professionals decided to investigate the status of persons with disabilities at privately-run centers.

Radio Al-Balad’s investigation unit and the Arab world’s investigative journalism network ARIJ cooperated for over a year to look into the case.

Because the media have little access to these centers, and due to the lack of serious monitoring, Al-Balad’s journalist Hanan Khandakji was dispatched to do undercover reporting. She volunteered at a few centers, and over a 12-month period was able to collect damning evidence of verbal, physical and sexual abuse.

Attempts to get government officials to better scrutinize the center failed to produce results. Before publishing the report, the BBC Arabic TV station was approached and agreed to film a documentary based on the evidence collected. The two sides agreed to broadcast/publish the investigation simultaneously, along with Al Ghad newspaper.

The combined local and international video-based media coverage produced quick results. The king made an unannounced visit to Ibn Khaldoun and Al-Razi centers, both owned by a single entrepreneur.

After the visit, and based on the initial media evidence, the king instructed the prime minister to quickly and comprehensively investigate the charges, turn over to the judiciary those guilty of wrongdoing and provide him with results within two weeks.

Families of children with disabilities warmly welcomed the king’s intervention and will be awaiting the results of the special committee. In both the prisoner protests and the media investigation a clear trend can be identified.

Injustice is recognized, clear attainable goals are identified, comprehensive plans are assembled, hard work is invested over a long period and the public is involved.

All this is done without violence, with strong determination and active effort and follow up. While many choose the shortcut of violence or revolution to effect changes, it is clear that although nonviolent and society civil-based activities take longer, they can produce impressive and tangible results.

In the two above cases, actions and results cannot be expected based on a one-off activity or a faza (communal knee jerk emotional outburst); they require long-term, focused and comprehensive plans.

Community leadership development, institutional capacity building, financial and administrative support are all important ingredients that must be included for results to be comprehensive and long lasting.

Daoud Kuttab is a journalist and former professor of journalism at Princeton University.