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Alleged war crimes by British Special Forces in Afghanistan set to have major repercussions

Members of the Special Air Service and its sister unit, the Special Boat Service, were active in Afghanistan during the British military presence in the war-torn country.
Press TV | August 2, 2020

New evidence has come to light that British Special Forces in Afghanistan routinely committed war crimes by shooting dead unarmed civilians.

The fresh material follows an investigation by BBC Panorama which focuses on the concerns of the Special Forces top brass that the units under their command were routinely killing unarmed men and women as part of their operations.

At their height, the operations, dubbed the “night raids”, occurred on a virtually nightly basis and were ostensibly targeted at senior echelons of the Taliban militant movement.

The new documents – held by the courts – were recently released to the solicitors Leigh Day as part of an active case at the High Court, which is set to rule on whether allegations of unlawful killing by British Special Forces were originally investigated properly.

The original complainant in the case is Afghan national, Saifullah Ghareb Yar, who claims four members of his family were “assassinated” by UK Special Forces in the early hours of February 16, 2011.

The case is of seminal importance especially in the light of the British government’s consistent refusal to properly investigate alleged war crimes committed by British troops – both regular and Special Forces – in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The situation has deteriorated to the point that the International Criminal Court (ICC) intervened back in November 2019 by stating its willingness to investigate the British military for the first time.

The ICC’s intervention has been widely interpreted as a major embarrassment to the British government and military alike.

August 2, 2020 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , | 1 Comment

Ten Years After Lieberman’s “Internet Kill Switch,” the War on Freedom Rages On

By Thomas L. Knapp | The Garrison Center | August 2, 2020

In 2010, US Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Thomas Carper (D-DE) introduced their Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act. Better known as the “Internet Kill Switch” proposal for the emergency powers it would have conferred on the president, the bill died without receiving a vote in either house of Congress.

A decade later, the same fake issues and the same authoritarian “solutions” continue to dominate discussions on the relationship between technology and state. The real issue remains the same as well. As I wrote in a column on the “Kill Switch” bill nearly 10 years ago:

“If the price of keeping Joe Lieberman in power is you staring over a plow at the ass end of a mule all day and lighting your home with candles or kerosene at night before collapsing on a bed of filthy straw, that’s a price Joe Lieberman is more than willing to have you pay.”

A single thread connects the “Internet Kill Switch” to the passage of Internet censorship provisions in the name of fighting sex trafficking (FOSTA/SESTA), the whining of federal law enforcement and intelligence officials  for “back doors” to cripple strong encryption, and President Trump’s threats to ban video-sharing app TikTok, supposedly because the Chinese government’s surveillance programs just might be as lawless and intrusive as those of the US government.

That thread is the burning, pathological compulsion which drives politicians and bureaucrats to control every aspect of our lives, on the flimsiest of excuses and no matter the cost to us.

The compulsion hardly limits itself to technology issues (the war on drugs is a great example of its scope), nor is it limited to the federal level of government (see, for example, the mostly state and local diktats placing millions of Americans under house arrest without charge or trial “because COVID-19”).

That thread and that compulsion are more obvious vis a vis the Internet than “public health”-based authoritarianism because we’ve been propagandized and indoctrinated into the latter ideology for centuries, while the public-facing Internet is younger than most Americans.

Few of us can remember the days before quarantine-empowered “health departments” in every county, let alone a time when a five-year-old could walk into a store and buy morphine without so much as a doctor’s note.

But most of us can remember a relatively censorship-free Internet and the false promises of politicians and bureaucrats to respect the dramatically expanded power it gave to free speech.

That makes “kill switches” and “back doors” and TikTok bans a tougher sell. But the political class is still coming after the Internet. If we want to continue living in the 21st century instead of the 11th, we’re going to have to keep fighting them.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org).

August 2, 2020 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , | 1 Comment

Jewish fanatics attack Palestinian family in al-Khalil city

Israeli soldiers arrest members of the victimized family

Palestine Information Center – August 2, 2020

AL-KHALIL – A horde of extremist Jewish settlers on Saturday evening assaulted, under military protection, the family of Palestinian activist Imad Abu Shamshiya in Tel Rumeida neighborhood in al-Khalil city, south of the West Bank.

According to local sources, a group of settlers attacked the house of anti-settlement activist Abu Shamshiya before Israeli soldiers intervened in favor of the settlers and rounded up his wife, his daughter Arwa and his son Awni.

The house of Abu Shamshiya is located near the illegal settlement of Ramat Yeshai, which was built on annexed land near an Israeli military checkpoint.

The house and family of Abu Shamsiya had been exposed to attacks by settlers and soldiers several times before in an attempt to force them to leave the area.

August 2, 2020 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | 3 Comments

Occupation forces obstruct pipe-construction works near Tubas

Palestinian Media Center | August 2, 2020

Israeli occupation forces obstructed works for the construction of a water pipe Saturday in the village of Atouf, near the town of Tubas in the northeast of the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Mayor of the village, Abdullah Besharat, told WAFA that the Israeli occupation army ordered the driver of a bulldozer working on the site to briefly stop the works.

He added that the project aims at providing potable water to dozens of livestock and cattle breeders in Atouf and neighboring villages.

August 2, 2020 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | 3 Comments

Terrorists organizing murder from their safe havens in US, EU: Iran’s Zarif

Press TV – August 2, 2020

Iran has lashed out at Western countries for financing and harboring terrorists, saying the safe havens provided for these groups in the US and Europe have given them a platform for organizing the murder of innocent civilians.

“The west must cease financing and harboring terrorists,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted on Saturday night.

“From their safe havens in US and Europe, they promote hatred, agitate and organize murder and mayhem, and shamelessly claim responsibility for the murder of innocent Iranian civilians,” he added.

“Smokescreens can’t obscure this hypocrisy.”

His tweet came a few hours after the Iranian Intelligence Ministry said it has arrested the ringleader of an anti-Iran terrorist group based in the United States.

Iranian security forces have managed to arrest the head of the terrorist group, Jamshid Sharmahd, who directed “armed operations and acts of sabotage” in Iran from the US, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Following a complicated operation, the ringleader of the group, named Tondar (Thunder), was arrested and he is “now in the powerful hands” of Iranian security forces, it added.

The ministry said it has dealt a heavy blow to the Tondar group that planned and carried out a deadly terrorist attack on Seyyed al-Shohada mosque in the southern city of Shiraz, Fars Province, in 2008, which killed 14 people and wounded 215 others.

It noted that the terrorist group had also planned to carry out other large-scale operations, like blowing up several places, including Sivand Dam in Shiraz, Mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini in southern Tehran, and Tehran International Book Fair, which were all foiled.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Saturday that the US regime must be held accountable for “supporting this terrorist grouplet (Tondar) and other [terrorist] outfits as well as criminals that lead sabotage, armed and terrorist operations from within the United States against the Iranian people” and shed the blood of Iranians.

“The US regime considers itself to be standing by the Iranian people while it harbors and supports in different ways the known terrorists and those have claimed responsibility for several terrorist operations inside Iran and who have the blood of innocent Iranian people and citizens on their hands,” he added.

Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi also told the state TV that “people like Sharmahd make a mistake to rely on the US and the Zionist regime as these two support them as long as they serve their interests.”

“Although Interpol was tasked with arresting him, no action was taken against him, which shows the West’s empty slogan of fighting terrorism,” he pointed out.

August 2, 2020 Posted by | War Crimes, Wars for Israel | , | 1 Comment

Anti-Semitism payouts are an ‘abuse of members money,’ trade union warns Labour Party

RT | August 1, 2020

Britain’s Labour party is dishing out “substantial damages” to staffers who accused the party of anti-Semitism. However, new Labour leader Keir Starmer is facing backlash for this tactic of handling the issue.

Labour’s opponents have long accused the party of anti-Semitism, and a BBC documentary last year promised to shed light on these accusations. In it, seven former party members and a host of Israel advocates claimed that the party had stymied investigations into anti-Jewish sentiment within its ranks. The party condemned the documentary as “biased,” and accused the former members of having “personal and political axes to grind.”

These former members then sued the party, which agreed last week to pay “substantial damages” in the hundreds of thousands of pounds to settle the matter.

Starmer has made stamping out anti-Semitism a top priority, but the party’s most influential backers don’t agree with handing over cash payouts.

“It’s an abuse of members’ money,” ‘Unite’ leader Len McCluskey told the Observer on Saturday. “A lot of it is Unite’s money and I’m already being asked all kinds of questions by my executive. It’s as though a huge sign has been put up outside the Labour party with ‘queue here with your writ and get your payment over there.’”

With 1.2 million members, Unite is Britain’s second-largest trade union. It is also the Labour Party’s largest donor, and has coughed more than £7 million for the party since the start of last year. A withdrawal of its funding would leave the party at risk of insolvency, especially considering the more than 30 anti-Semitism lawsuits it may still have to settle.

McCluskey told the Observer that there is “no doubt” that his union will demand a review of the money it donates to the party. “It would be a mistake if anybody took Unite for granted,” he remarked. “I think that would be a mistake.”

August 1, 2020 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , | 10 Comments

A U-2 and World Peace were Sabotaged in 1960

Tales of the American Empire | January 30, 2020

During his last year in office, American President Dwight Eisenhower’s primary goal was called a “Crusade for Peace.” He was the former Allied military commander during World War II and developed a friendship with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who also played a key role in the Allied victory. They had several friendly meetings and planned for a détente resulting deep cuts in military spending. A meeting was scheduled for May 14, 1960 in Paris where a major disarmament agreement would be signed. Many powerful men in Washington DC opposed peace and four conspired to sabotage this agreement. Two weeks before this meeting, they ordered an unauthorized U-2 spy flight over key bases in the center of the Soviet Union. Its pilot was captured after crash landing his aircraft because its fuel was sabotaged.

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“The Secret Team”; Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty US Air Force retired; 1973. This can be read on-line for free: http://www.lander.odessa.ua/doc/The%2…

Colonel Fletcher Prouty discussed Gary Powers U-2 flight in later interviews; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ookIT…

August 1, 2020 Posted by | Militarism, Timeless or most popular, Video | | Leave a comment

Boston Marathon Bombing Death Sentence Vacated by Federal Court of Appeals

By Paul Craig Roberts | Institute for Political Economy | July 31, 2020

Today the Federal Court of Appeals for the First Circuit vacated the death sentence concocted for one of the alleged bombers of the alleged Boston Marathon bombing of April, 2013, seven years ago. Some years ago John Remington Graham and I demonstrated conclusively that the FBI’s own evidence proved conclusively that, even if there really was a bombing for which there is much exposed false evidence, the Tsarnaev brothers were not involved. You can find our analysis in my articles archive on my website.

We succeeded in getting our evidence of their innocence in front of the federal appeals court, and we were stunned when the court accepted it as part of the record. We have been hopeful ever since. Me less than John Remington Graham. As a retired defense attorney and public prosecutor and, undeniably, an expert on the US, Canadian, and unwritten British constitutions, Jack, as he is known, hoped that the judges would not accept our evidence of the Tsarnaev brothers’ innocence unless the judges intended to act on it. I myself did not see how they could possibly have the courage to blow up one of the hoaxes used to sustain the fabricated “terrorist threat.” Have you noticed how this “terrorist threat” went away? Why did it go away if it were real? It wasn’t real, and it served its purpose at the time. Now we have new threats, China, American white supremacy, Trump, and new hoaxes—Russiagate, George Floyd’s death at racist white police hands, etc.

The federal appeals court for the First Circuit has disappointed us by only vacating Dzhokhar’s death sentence and not his false conviction. Dzhokhar’s appointed attorney cooperated with the prosecution in convicting him. The lack of representation is sufficient to overturn his conviction. Dzhokhar’s appointed attorney did not raise the question of the FBI’s own evidence that the brothers were innocent. She entered the trial with a guilty plea on behalf of her client. In other words, a trial was not needed. A plea bargain could have been arranged instead. The unnecessary trial itself was a hoax for public relations purposes. The appointed attorney was part of the setup that convicted an innocent person for reasons of a hidden agenda. She put her career before truth. That is what people do in a society that has lost its way. We see it all around us. Truth is the greatest enemy of the ruling class. The presstitutes, professors, and corporations that serve the ruling class, in exchange, enjoy financially comfortable lives, unlike 80% of Americans. The way to succeed in America is to be a whore for the Establishment.

The First Circuit’s ruling does not free Dzhokhar. The ruling instructs the lower federal district court to hold a new trial to determine Dzhokhar’s punishment. I think that this is all the federal appeal court dared to do.

Nevertheless, the federal appeals court ruling opens a wedge by admitting that something was wrong, and Dzhokhar’s punishment has to be reconsidered in a new trial. If there were attorneys and bar associations that served justice rather than career and money, they could use the opening provided by the First Circuit to blow up the hoax conviction of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev together with the hoax false flag Boston Marathon Bombing. This, I think, is the message from the US Appeals Court of the First Circuit. The Appeals Court opens the opportunity, but if no one cares, the Appeals Court is not going to take the hit for declaring an innocent person innocent.

A country whose lawyers no longer will fight for justice, but only for money, is a lost and destroyed country.

August 1, 2020 Posted by | False Flag Terrorism | | 5 Comments

US cannot disarm Lebanon’s Hezbollah through sanctions: Russian ambassador to Beirut

Press TV – August 1, 2020

The Russian ambassador to Beirut says US officials are under the illusion that they can disarm the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement through sanctions.

“Disarming Hezbollah is the primary purpose of US sanctions… I do not think that such a goal would be achieved through this method. The United States will not manage to force Hezbollah into laying down its weapons. This is an illusion,” Zasypkin said in an exclusive interview with Beirut-based Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television news network on Friday.

In late October 2018, US President Donald Trump’s administration imposed a new round of sanctions on Hezbollah, targeting individuals and international organizations that do business with the group.

“Over the past year, we have levied the highest sanctions ever imposed on Hezbollah, in a single year, by far. Just a few moments ago, I signed legislation imposing even more hard-hitting sanctions on Hezbollah to further starve them of their funds. And they are starving for them,” Trump said during an event in Washington, DC, that marked the 35th anniversary of an attack on US marine barracks in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

Zasypkin added, “We (Russia) have made efforts in Syria. This is not only beneficial to Syria, but also to Lebanon as it protects the country against the potential threat of terrorism. If terrorism prevails in Syria, it will be easy for thousands of terrorists to cross into Lebanon, and this would lead to the partitioning of the country.”

He noted that Iran plays a positive role in the Middle East region, condemning the recent harassment of an Iranian passenger plane flying from Tehran to Beirut by two US fighter jets over Syria.

“Americans are creating problems and violating international law. The goal is to create tensions and reestablish their presence, role and influence,” the Russian diplomat said.

He went on to say that the balance of power in Syria is changing. “Over the past four years, the balance of power had been in the interest of terrorists. The ensuing terrorism allowed outsiders, including the US-led coalition, to come into play.”

“I think Americans have numerous problems there (in Syria), but al-Tanf region is still under their control. They are clinging to the area in order to have influence. Their main goal is to sever ties between Iran and Syria,” Zasypkin pointed out.

He noted that Moscow honors the principle of non-interference in Syria’s domestic affairs, lauding “close relations” between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad as well as military forces of the two countries.

Zasypkin said Russian and Syrian institutions are closely cooperating with each other in various fields, including combat against terrorism, maintenance, reconstruction and humanitarian activities.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Russian ambassador pointed to the recent rafts of economic sanctions against Syria under the so-called Caesar Act.

“The United States has used the leverage of sanctions for decades against Russia, Venezuela, Cuba and Iran. The essence of the idea has been to starve people in those countries in a way that they would ultimately turn against their own ruling systems. The scheme is now being applied to all countries,” Zasypkin highlighted.

He added, “Caesar Act is broad and comprehensive, and affects other parties since Syria has been under sanctions for a long time. Foreign companies are now targeted by the ruling. It is a preemptive battle against the possibility of restoration of ties between Syria and Western or Arab parties.”

August 1, 2020 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , | 18 Comments

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