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UK anti-war campaigns to join labor unions in strike

Press TV – November 27, 2011

British anti-war campaigns have thrown their weight behind the nationwide strike against the government’s cuts in pensions and welfare services, urging the government to cut warfare not welfare.

Stop the War Coalition (SWC) and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament announced that they would participate in the November 30 strike action organized by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to call on the government to cut war and Trident spending not pensions.

The campaigns stressed that the government’s spending cuts have only been applied on jobs and public services, while spending on war is mounting without interruption.

Britain spent at least £1.5 billion on the Libya war, and spends about £5 billion per year on the Afghanistan war, SWC revealed. The campaign also said that the overall costs of the war on terror to the US are $3 trillion.

It is estimated that over three million public sector workers will participate in the pension strike across Britain, to defend their pensions against the government’s austerity measures.

The anti-war campaigns proclaimed they would support the strike action of 28 unions, believing the Tory-led government’s wrong policies would boost poverty and misery for the poor people.

“The budget deficits in the US and Britain have been caused in part by the rising cost of wars. Governments have borrowed money to pay for war. They are now asking people to accept cuts and austerity to pay for them,” SWC convener Lindsey German said.

Suggesting an alternative to the cut plans, German said the government could “cut spending on war and the Trident nuclear submarine system and use the money to fund welfare.”

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), also condemned the government’s war policies. “The war in Afghanistan and the war in Libya are wrong. They are misjudged; they are not about what people claim they are about. And we should actually find a way out of those pretty quickly, not make the situation in those countries worse as well as at the same time take valuable resources that could go into schools and hospitals,” he said.

November 27, 2011 Posted by | Economics, Militarism, Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

France training rebels to fight Syria

Press TV – November 26, 2011

A Turkish newspaper has unveiled that French military forces are training armed Syrian rebels to fight the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

According to Milliyet, as cited by IRNA, France has sent its military training forces to Turkey and Lebanon to coach the so-called Free Syrian Army — a group of defectors operating out of Turkey and Lebanon — in an effort to wage war against Syria’s military.

The report added that the French, British, and Turkish authorities “have reached an agreement to send arms into Syria.”

The Turkish daily said that the three have informed the US about training and arming the Syrian opposition.

According to Milliyet, a group of armed rebels are currently stationed in Turkey’s Hatay Province near the border with Syria.

The report comes as an earlier report had revealed that the British and French intelligence agencies have reportedly tasked their agents with contacting Syrian dissidents based in the northern Lebanese town of Tripoli in order to help fuel unrest in Syria.

Reports also said that French intelligence agents have been sent to northern Lebanon and Turkey to build the first contingents of the Free Syrian Army out of the deserters who have fled Syria.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of President Assad.

Damascus says the unrest has been largely incited by elements that are well-paid and armed by foreign powers. Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.

The opposition and Western countries accuse Syrian security forces of being behind the killings in the country, but the government blames what it describes as outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups for the deadly violence, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.

November 26, 2011 Posted by | Militarism, Wars for Israel | Leave a comment

Pakistan PM condemns NATO airstrike

Press TV – November 26, 2011

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has strongly condemned a NATO airstrike on a border post, which killed at least 28 Pakistani soldiers, Press TV reports.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday that it also lodged a complaint in the strongest terms with NATO and the US over the attack, a Press TV correspondent reported.

“On his [Gilani] directions, the matter is being taken up by the foreign ministry, in the strongest terms, with NATO and the US,” the ministry said.

The incident occurred when a NATO helicopter targeted a security forces checkpoint known as Salala on the Mohmand Agency in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border early on Saturday. The strike also left 15 Pakistani soldiers injured.

The Western alliance said it was aware that an incident took place and it is still in the process of gathering information to investigate the attack.

In retaliation, Islamabad has blocked NATO supplies to Afghanistan.

Dozens of trucks carrying goods and petroleum supplies for NATO forces were stopped in the Torkham border area of the Khyber tribal region in northwestern Pakistan.

Pakistan has repeatedly condemned airstrikes against its troops near the border with Afghanistan. While the strikes supposedly target militants, they usually claim the lives of civilians and Pakistani soldiers.

November 26, 2011 Posted by | Militarism, War Crimes | Leave a comment

US to keep hundreds of ‘trainers’ in Iraq

Press TV – November 24, 2011

The United States plans to retain more than 700 American forces in Iraq after the US withdrawal from the country by the end of December 2011.

According to Iraqi officials, Baghdad had reached an agreement with Washington to allow 740 so-called US trainers stay in the country after the December withdrawal deadline, Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper reported on its website on Wednesday.

The news comes despite weeks of gestures by Iraqi officials who vowed no agreement could ever be reached to keep US troops in the country.

The agreement comes after President Barack Obama announced in October that the US military presence in Iraq would end at the timetable agreed by Baghdad and his predecessor Gorge W. Bush’s administration.

“There are no talks any more about this issue and the final total number of US trainers is 740,” said a senior Iraqi security official referring to months of informal talks between Iraq and US officials on the issue.

“Most of them are civilian weapons contractors, and just a few are military officers.”

Talks between Baghdad and Washington ran aground over legal immunity for US troops if they stayed on as trainers, which many Iraqi officials opposed as politically implausible.

A US military official had earlier said about 700 civilian trainers were to remain, together with 157 military personnel and a force of up to 25 marine guards at the massive US embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad.

The US State Department will also have a massive “private army” of thousands of military contractors.

The US trainers will be stationed in Baghdad, Tikrit, Kirkuk, Basra, Nassiriya, Besmaya, Taji and Arbil, according to Iraqi officials.

The US troops do not enjoy immunity, but they will be considered as part of the US embassy delegation in Iraq, they noted.

November 24, 2011 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Militarism | Leave a comment

Bernard-Henri Levy declares war on Syria

By Othman Tazghart | Al-Ahkbar | November 23, 2011

Influential French Zionist Bernard-Henri Levy, who played a key role in NATO’s intervention in Libya, is now hoping to repeat the same scenario in Syria.

In a revealing installment of his weekly column Le Point magazine titled “Endgame in Syria,” French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy claims that Syrian opposition figures he’s in touch with are increasingly coming around to the view that military intervention, Libya-style, may be the only way to get rid of the regime in Damascus.

He ends his article with a quasi-official declaration of war on Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Levy, who bragged in his last book about the strong influence he has over French President Nicolas Sarkozy, confessed that the two conspired together to marginalize the French foreign ministry so that it would not impede NATO’s intervention in Libya.

In his recent column, Levy reveals secret efforts he has undertaken in the past few months to convince Syrian opposition figures to support him in what he calls the “Gaddafi theory.”

He argues that NATO intervention to overthrow the Libyan dictator has set a “precedent” in the 21st century for developing a new doctrine for toppling authoritarian regimes that shoot at their own people.

Levy goes on to affirm that the Syrian regime will be toppled along the lines of the Libyan scenario, adding that all that is left in Syria is “the final scene which has not been completely written yet.”

Levy, who is well-known for his Zionist views, revealed that his behind-the-scenes endeavor began six months ago with a meeting in London with former Syrian vice president Rifaat Assad.

Perhaps this explains Rifaat’s surprise appearance in Paris last week to call on the Assad family to step down, and for the Syrian people to take up arms against the regime.

Levy also confirms in his column that a number of Syrian opposition figures and military officers who have defected have told him in meetings and discussions he has held with them during the course of the uprising that they support “international intervention.”

On the other hand, Levy says that “a nascent regional power called Qatar” is behind the latest Arab League initiative on Syria, which is part of a plan inspired by the “Libyan precedent.”

Levy goes on to say: “As in Libya? Yes, as in Libya. It is the ‘Libyan precedent’ all over again. The same force, nay, the same forces producing the same effect. How do those involved not see it? What autism prevents Bashar Assad from understanding that the same coalition which toppled Gaddafi is coming together again to topple him?”

The most interesting piece of information revealed in Levy’s article is how a number of Syrian opposition figures he talked to shifted their position towards supporting “international intervention.”

“That had been a taboo until now. ‘Intervention’ was a word that ought not to be uttered. There were, even in France, Syrian opposition figures whom I met while preparing for a rally in solidarity with Syrian civilians this past summer who told me at the time that they would prefer to die than say the word ‘intervention’ or ‘international intervention’,” Levy wrote.

“This is the reason why we did not do in Syria what we did in Libya. Not because of double standards. This ‘moral scandal’ has many reasons and justifications, first among them is that Syrian opposition figures, unlike their Libyan counterparts, not only did not ask for intervention, but often opposed it. Their views however are beginning to change. And this is the reason why the regime in Damascus is doomed,” he continued.

“The war has been declared on Assad.”

November 23, 2011 Posted by | Militarism, Wars for Israel | Leave a comment

Israel says NO to nuclear transparency

Press TV – November 22, 2011

Israel has once again refused to acknowledge international calls for transparency in its covert nuclear program during a meeting held by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

During the nuclear-free Middle East conference in Vienna, deputy head of Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission David Danieli said on Monday that Tel Aviv would not begin talks on the issue.

“Experience shows that such a process can only be launched when normal, peaceful relations exist in the region, when the threat perception of all regional members is low,” he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

“Political instability, open hostilities, deep mistrust and noncompliance with international obligations are too common in many parts of the Middle East region,” he argued.

This is while participants at the gathering condemned Tel Aviv’s response, saying Israel’s massive nuclear arsenal and total lack of transparency will make the goal of a nuclear-free Middle East completely impossible.

Syria said Israel is posing a “grave and serious threat” through its undeclared atomic arsenal.

Last year, the 189 members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) decided to convene a UN-sponsored conference on establishing a Middle East nuclear-free zone in 2012. This year’s meeting was an incentive for most of the nations to meet with Israel for the exploratory Vienna talks.

Despite international condemnation, Tel Aviv still remains unclear whether it will even attend the 2012 talks.

Israel is considered to be the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. It refuses to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities or to join the NPT based on its policy of nuclear ambiguity.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Berlin-based Friedrich Ebert Foundation, more than 50 percent of European people believe Israel is the most serious threat to global security.

November 22, 2011 Posted by | Militarism | Leave a comment

Was the Israel lobby behind the Ugandan intervention?

By Maidhc Ó Cathail | The Passionate Attachment | November 22, 2011

What initially piqued my interest in this story was the report in Haaretz that former Mossad chief Rafi Eitan organised President Museveni’s recent visit to Israel, where the Ugandan dictator ended up staying in the same hotel as the Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Eitan claims to be interested in starting a ranching business in Uganda. According to a senior Ugandan government official, the president’s secret visit likely had something to with “security matters and buying arms.”

Researching the origins of President Obama’s recent deployment of approximately 100 combat-equipped U.S. forces to help regional forces “remove from the battlefield” Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and senior leaders of the LRA, I learned that Sen. Russ Feingold was the author of the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act in 2009. Under the guise of campaign finance reform, McCain-Feingold legislation doubled the financial resources that the Israel lobby can deploy to elect and retain its supporters. What are the odds that AIPAC crafted both pieces of legislation?

In a 2010 report, the International Crisis Group recommended that the U.S. government should:

Deploy a team to the theatre of operations to run an intelligence platform that centralises all operational information from the Ugandan and other armies, as well as the UN and civilian networks, and provides analysis to the Ugandans to better target military operations.

George Soros, one of the ICG’s main donors, is also a major (and for a long time secret) donor to J Street — or “AIPAC Lite” as Philip Giraldi so aptly described the supposedly “alternative” pro-Israel lobby group. His Open Society Foundation is actively promoting “open society ideals” in Uganda. Significantly, ICG appears to be the source of the supposedly “humanitarian” R2P doctrine:

In its efforts to help prevent conflict worldwide, the International Crisis Group has consistently drawn upon the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), the principle that sovereign states, and the international community as a whole, have a responsibility to protect civilians from mass atrocity crimes. Crisis Group President Gareth Evans served as co-chair of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty that first developed the R2P concept in 2001.

In an ABC report on Obama’s decision to protect “the people of central Africa,” Jake Tapper notes that Human Rights Watch “has a great deal of information about the infamous LRA.” In 2010, Soros gave $100 million to the American organisation enabling it to “increase its advocacy in key emerging regions in the developing world.”

Considering Soros’s reputation as a “non-Zionist,” it’s remarkable how often his interests appear to converge with those of the Jewish state’s intelligence services.

November 22, 2011 Posted by | Deception, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Militarism, Progressive Hypocrite, Timeless or most popular, Wars for Israel | Leave a comment

US shoots down Russian missile defense proposals

RT | November 21, 2011

Russia’s Ambassador to NATO has said that Russia-US missile defense negotiations have hit an impasse, as Washington rejects Russia’s cooperation in the controversial project.

­The United States has rejected every missile defense proposal offered by Moscow, Permanent Representative to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said in an interview with Echo of Moscow radio.

Washington has said “no” to the Russian idea of a common missile defense network, Rogozin said. More telling as to the true purpose of the project, perhaps, the US also refused to give legally binding guarantees that the system would not be aimed at Russia’s strategic nuclear defenses under any circumstances.

The United States and NATO have been working on a European missile defense shield to protect Eastern Europe from a rogue missile strike. Russia has warned the West that such a system, without full interoperability between NATO and Russia, will necessarily be viewed as a potential threat to its national security.

In May, during the G8 Summit in Deauville, France, President Dmitry Medvedev warned of “another arms race” unless the two sides reached an acceptable position.

Meanwhile, Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev ordered the negotiators back to the table to continue negotiations until NATO makes its decision on the missile defense architecture.

A final decision is expected to be announced at the NATO Chicago summit in May 2012.

November 21, 2011 Posted by | Militarism, Progressive Hypocrite | Leave a comment

The Struggle to Control Libya’s Military Future

By Moammar Atwi | Al-Ahkbar | November 21, 2011

The struggle for control over Libya’s military establishment is on amid concerns that Western powers want to establish a major NATO base in the country under the guise of fighting ‘terrorism’.

The one-month deadline Libya’s Transitional National Council (NTC) had set for itself to form an interim government ended on Sunday.

If the NTC can reach an agreement with rebel field commanders over the formation of the new government, Libyans would have surpassed the first major hurdle on the path to democracy.

However, there are significant divisions behind this facade of agreement between two contending parties.

One current within the council is close to the United States and is seen to be carrying out Washington’s bidding in the state building process that Libya is currently going through.

Another group seeks to maintain good relations with the West, while retaining some level of independence by minimizing interference from those powers who contributed to the toppling of the former regime.

The latter group can be described as patriotic, consisting of nationalists, leftists, Islamists, and independents. They backed the nomination of Abdel Rahim al-Keib for prime minister and therefore succeeded in winning the first round with the opposing faction.

Al-Keib is a businessman and a moderate technocrat. It seems that he is well regarded by both the majority of political parties within Libya and some of Tripoli’s key foreign backers.

However, the pro-US faction managed to win the second round after Khalifa Haftar was chosen as head of the Libyan National Army, which is in the process of being reactivated.

Haftar, who is known to be a reliable Washington ally, used to be an officer in Gaddafi’s army until he was discharged during Libya’s war with Chad in the late 1980s.

Haftar then broke with Gaddafi and joined the opposition, establishing the “National Army” during his captivity in Chad. He then went on to live in the US before returning to Libya and joining the ranks of the transitional council’s forces in the wake of the uprising last February.

Haftar comes from the al-Furjan tribe, one of the biggest in Libya, with a strong presence in Sirte. He fought for leadership of the rebel army, but was initially sidelined by the late general Abdel Fattah Younes.

Younis had a nationalist orientation; he belonged to the al-Obeidat tribe that dominates Benghazi.

Younes was assassinated last July. Though his death was attributed to Islamists, the identity of his assassins is yet to be revealed. This opened the way for Haftar to take over leadership of the armed forces.

According to numerous reports, Haftar is a longtime CIA agent, and it was the American intelligence agency that dispatched him to Libya during the insurrection to represent Washington’s interests in the TNC.

If Abdel Hakim Belhaj, the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, becomes the defense minister, the relationship between the ministry of defense and the leadership of the army will not be an easy one, to say the least.

The first sign of tensions between the two men surfaced a few days ago during a meeting held to designate the next head of the Libyan army. The meeting fell apart after rebels objected to the participation of a large number of former army officers.

The very next day, about 150 military officers resolved the matter in a meeting in the city of al-Baida, choosing Haftar to fill the post.

Many analysts speculate that the US and the Europeans are hoping the new Libyan army will play a key role in fighting so-called Islamic terrorism in the Sahel region.

Some even fear that the ground is being prepared for the establishment of a NATO base on Libyan territory under the pretext of fighting ‘terrorism’ in North Africa.

To this end, a number of intelligence reports have been circulated in Western media about the disappearance of large quantities of dangerous weapons and anti-aircraft missiles from Libyan army ammunition stores. The reports suggested that they may have fallen into the hands of al-Qaeda groups operating in Mali, Algeria, and Niger.

Last Wednesday, at a meeting in Algeria of the Working Group of Capacity-Building in the Sahel, US counter-terrorism coordinator Ambassador Daniel Benjamin said, “the terrorist threat is becoming more and more complex with some of the changes that the region is witnessing. This is particularly the case in the neighboring country of Libya.”

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika addressed these concerns in Doha last week in a meeting with TNC Chairman Mustapha Abdul Jalil. Both leaders are worried that the missing weapons issue might be exploited by the West to establish a long-term military base in Libya.

November 20, 2011 Posted by | Militarism, Timeless or most popular | Leave a comment

There’s a Tax on Band-Aids, Why not on Credit Default Swaps?

The Washington Stakeout | November 6, 2011

Two House budget committee members — Rep. Heath Shuler, (D-N.C.), and Rep. Mike Simpson, (R- Idaho) — have been making the media rounds as the new faces of establishment bipartisanship in favor of a letter 100 congress people signed on to stating “all options for mandatory” — presumably including Social Security, which adds nothing to the deficit — “and discretionary spending and revenue must be on the table.”

Sam Husseini questioned them as they left the Fox studios on Sunday morning.

Husseini: Most Americans want to see an increase in taxes on the wealthy and corporations, ending the wars, and Congress doesn’t do that. Is that because Congress is basically bought and paid for?

Shuler: “I think the thing that you look at: here’s an opportunity that we can do so much because once the Supercommittee releases its finding and that becomes a bill, and it’s put on the House floor, there’s no amendments to it, it can’t be altered or changed when it goes from the House to the Senate. So that gives us an opportunity to have a clean slate to be able to put everything on the bill, to increase the revenue. The problem is, you don’t find this very often when you have members of the different political parties working together and acting. It’s much easier to split the screen and let us debate and argue something. But we’re united. We’re together. Now we have 100 members in the House and counting, with the 45 members in the Senate. That is the best, most newsworthy thing we can provide for you under the most difficult situations that we have. And to be able to come up with the cuts that’s necessary and the revenue that’s necessary to put us on a more sustainable path.”

Shuler and Simpson’s handlers begin shouting to try to stop the questioning.

Husseini: “Why aren’t you united to tax the rich and the corporations and end the wars? Why aren’t you united for something that is actually popular rather than pursues monied interests?”

Simpson: “We’ve ought to be looking at everything.”

Husseini [holding up box of Band-Aids just off camera]: “Let me ask you this: yesterday I went to a pharmacy and there’s a tax on Band-Aids. Why isn’t there a tax on financial transactions? I had to pay a 6 percent tax on Band-Aids that people need.”

Simpson: “Probably a state sales tax, right?” [Actually, it’s D.C. and D.C. is not a state, with many of its laws set by a Congress that D.C. residents have no real voice in and which Simpson and Shuler are members of.]

Husseini: “What’s your position on financial transaction tax?”

Simpson: “You’d have to look it up.”

Husseini: “Why can’t JP Morgan pay its transaction tax on their dealings [like ordinary people have to pay on necessities like Band-Aids]?”

Shuler and Simpson walk away.

Special thanks to Chris Belcher (video), Sam McCanne (transcription), Jonathan Schwarz, Matthew Bradley, David Swanson, Wendy Mink, Thomas Ferguson and Elisa Salasin for helping.

November 19, 2011 Posted by | Corruption, Economics, Militarism, Timeless or most popular, Video | Leave a comment

Filipinos pelt Clinton car with paintballs

Press TV – November 16, 2011

Filipino demonstrators attacked US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s convoy with paint bombs to show their opposition to her visit to the Philippines.

About 50 protesters hurled red paint at Clinton’s security detail near the presidential palace in Manila on Wednesday, forcing her convoy to detour. The demonstrators also threw their placards at the vehicles, AFP reported.

Filipino security officers and at least one American jumped out with automatic rifles drawn. However, no shots were fired.

Protesters in the Philippines urge the annulment of the Visiting Forces Agreement. Under the military pact, US troops are given legal safeguards when they visit the Philippines.

The pact has been contentious in the Philippines. There have been cases of crimes committed by US troops in the Southeast Asian country, and some Filipino groups are opposed to the presence of any US troops in their country.

Filipino anti-US protesters also marched towards the US Embassy on Wednesday to protest the visit.

The US military presence is a sensitive topic in the Philippines due to colonial legacy.

Clinton arrived in the Philippines on Tuesday to shore up military cooperation with the Filipino defense officials.

Last week, the US Secretary of State said that the United States was “updating” relationships with its five treaty-bound regional allies – Australia, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand.

November 16, 2011 Posted by | Militarism, Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

French military helicopter crashes in Somalia

Press TV – November 11, 2011

Nine people are believed to have died after a French helicopter crashed near Somalia’s Southern port city of Kismayo, Press TV reports.

The military chopper crashed late on Friday as it was patrolling the area between the town of Kuda and Kismayo, local Somali official, Captain Sabriye, said.

The crash caused a massive explosion and sent flames high into the sky.

French helicopters fly over the area, to provide backup for Kenyan forces, who launched an incursion into Somalia in October in pursuit of al-Shabab fighters.

In late October, French military spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard said Paris would transport air-borne military equipment to Kenyan soldiers near the Somali border.

November 11, 2011 Posted by | Militarism | Leave a comment

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