Guantanamo Suicide Mentally Ill

In an interview with the Miami Herald, Rashkind explained that his client’s psychological problems were “so severe” that he had “arranged to bring a civilian psychiatrist to the base to work with him” — although this had not happened by the time of his death. “I have no doubt it was a suicide,” Rashkind also said, adding, “This is really a sad mental health case … starting from childhood.”

In his discussion with the AP, Rashkind also explained that he was “not permitted to provide details” about either of his client’s two previous suicide attempts, “except to say both were serious,” although he did explicitly state, “He was close to death the first time.” The Miami Herald also noted that “legal sources familiar with the case” had explained that he “had spent long stretches in the psychiatric ward at Guantánamo,” although Rashkind was at pains to point out that the authorities in Guantánamo “treated him pretty humanely, I’d have to say,”

Disturbingly, however, Rashkind also claimed that, as well as failing to recognise that his client’s mental health issues had made suicide a strong possibility, the US authorities had seized the wrong man. More Here.

Karzai Slams Nato Again

The president's remarks follow a recent strike that mistakenly killed a group of children and women in southern Helmand province. He said it would be the last.

"From this moment, air strikes on the houses of people are not allowed," Karzai told reporters in Kabul.

Nato says it never conducts such strikes without Afghan government co-ordination and approval. A spokesman for Nato forces in Afghanistansaid they will review their procedures for air strikes given Karzai's statement but did not say that it would force any immediate change in tactics.

"In the days and weeks ahead we will co-ordinate very closely with President Karzai to ensure that his intent is met," spokeswoman Major Sunset Belinsky said.

If Karzai holds to what sounds like an order to international troops to abandon strikes, it could bring the Afghan government in direct conflict with its international allies.

Iraq War Worst Moment In UK History?

Obama Has Lost The Middle East - Robert Fisk

Obama's failure to support the Arab revolutions until they were all but over lost the US most of its surviving credit in the region. Obama was silent on the overthrow of Ben Ali, only joined in the chorus of contempt for Mubarak two days before his flight, condemned the Syrian regime – which has killed more of its people than any other dynasty in this Arab "spring", save for the frightful Gaddafi – but makes it clear that he would be happy to see Assad survive, waves his puny fist at puny Bahrain's cruelty and remains absolutely, stunningly silent over Saudi Arabia. And he goes on his knees before Israel. Is it any wonder, then, that Arabs are turning their backs on America, not out of fury or anger, nor with threats or violence, but with contempt?   READ MORE HERE.

Mubarrak Sorry and Sad - Lawyer

The corrupt grotesque Mubarrak is sorry. Sorry for ratting out his people to the US/Israeli axis for 3 decades. There is a special place in the infernal depths, Hosni. Make the most of the billions you bilked while you can. He's 'sorry', aw bless.

Iraq For Sale

Les Manifestants Espagnols. Dans Quelle Direction?

La mobilisation ne peut pas s'organiser en un parti politique en raison du rejet de cette forme d'organisation par une partie de la population mais aussi parce que cela impliquerait de réaliser un programme, qui créerait des lignes de fracture au sein du mouvement. Ce dernier est en effet trop hétérogène, tant de par la sociologie des gens qui le composent, que leur sensibilité politique et leur vision de la question nationale et  des régionalismes.

Les manifestants doivent donc continuer à se fédérer au sein d'un mouvement socio-politique, avec des spécificités pour chaque région et une auto-administration au niveau territorial. Ils doivent se mettre d'accord sur une plateforme de revendications et un calendrier de mobilisations, par exemple tous les 15 du mois. Ils auront ainsi une garantie de continuité du mouvement, au moins jusqu'aux élections générales, et pourront même décider de dialoguer et être soutenus par certains partis. Reste à savoir si l'adhésion de la population restera massive dans le temps. Tout dépendra du comportement des autorités : si elles répriment le mouvement, la solidarité qui le caractérise devrait s'en voir renforcée.

Et apres, La France?

Sudan - Is It Civil War?

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Bradley Manning - Film Clip

From the Guardian.

 This is who should be in Jail.

Bradley Manning, who was detained a year ago on Sunday in connection with the biggest security leak in US military history, was a "mess of a child" who should never have been put through a tour of duty in Iraq, according to an officer from the Fort Leonard Wood military base in Missouri, where Manning trained in 2007. The officer's words reinforce a leaked confidential military report that reveals that other senior officers thought he was unfit to go to Iraq. "He was harassed so much that he once pissed in his sweatpants," the officer said.

"I escorted Manning a couple of times to his 'psych' evaluations after his outbursts. They never should have trapped him in and recycled him in [to Iraq]. Never. Not that mess of a child I saw with my own two eyes. No one has mentioned the army's failure here – and the discharge unit who agreed to send him out there," said the officer, who asked not to be identified because of the hostility towards Manning in the military.

"I live in an area where I would be persecuted if I said anything against the army or helped Manning," the officer said. Read more and watch clip.

The Other Iraq

Amid the turmoil in central Iraq, human rights groups are now turning their attention to this semi-autonomous region, long considered to be a secure, democratic haven.

More than two months of anti-government demonstrations have led to violent crackdowns on what have been predominantly peaceful protests. Protest leaders say 10 people have so far been killed, more than 500 injured and more than 900 arrested by police and government military forces, sparking condemnation from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Inspired by the success of protests in Egypt and Tunisia, thousands began to gather daily in the town square of Sulaymaniyah and towns across the province on Feb. 17, protesting government corruption, high unemployment and a lack of basic services. Violent crackdowns by party-affiliated military forces stoked anger among the protesters, who began calling for the government to step down and make way for early elections. A final and brutal crackdown by the military put an end to the demonstrations several weeks ago and a heavy military presence still guards the streets. Read More.

Sadrists Protest Against Continued US Occupation

Spanish Protests Spread To France

The protesters at Puerto del Sol are interested only in action, not rhetoric. In the square, they built a makeshift campsite, including everything from a children's nursery and a library to a kitchen offering free food donated by local businesses.

In the space of a few days they had created separate working commissions to form proposals for change to current government policy. A social and migration commission would look at immigration policy, the health commission would focus on how to deprivatise health-care services. Other commissions were formed to handle politics, education, the economy and the environment.

Among the camp's immediate demands were calls for electoral reform, the dissolution of the Spanish parliament's second chamber, and an end to a much-despised policy of "salaries for life" for politicians.

The movement itself has no single leader or figurehead; all decisions are made by consensus at general assemblies, held twice daily. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, attend the meetings, and no decision is taken until every single person is in agreement.

The meetings are long and laborious – occasionally lasting more than four hours at a time – but seem so far to have been successful.

"The leadership is our assembly, where the decisions are taken by consensus," says Nadia Moreno, 29. "Many people think that this doesn't work – the reality is we are where we are after six days because of this consensus." More Here.(clip).

Last of The Warlords Captured

Yes, the blood-stained war criminal was captured on most of the UK news outlets and particularly on Channel 4 on Thursday 26th May. After being incognito for many months, Tony Blair was caught on camera yesterday parroting the words not only of Barak Obama but also of Benjamin Netanyahu. The subject was of course Obama's absurd 'peace plan' (why not call it a road map or something soundbitey like that). Despite the mutually exclusive views which O and N have expressed, Blair seemed to think there was a lot to be said for both. He illustrated this by repeating verbatim what they had both been saying over the last week. Even by Blair's standards this was a toe-curling example of tying yourself in knots to be a useful retainer.

Full Civil War Looms In Yemen

With the violence flaring, panic has begun to grip Sana'a. Long lines of cars and buses with bags strapped to the roofs were seen filtering out of the city. Those staying put have started hoarding, withdrawing cash, and filling buckets with petrol and barricading themselves indoors.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, urged Saleh to hand over power, reduced embassy staff and warned all British expatriates to leave Yemen immediately. "British Nationals should not remain [in Yemen] ... I cannot stress this too strongly," he said.

The United States also ordered non-essential personnel and family members of staff to leave the country. "The security threat level in Yemen is extremely high due to terrorist activities and civil unrest," the state department said. More here and from the Trench here.

Snapshot Of The US/Israel Axis

If you were in any doubt about how deep the US political establishment is in hock to
Israel and AIPAC, watch this short clip:-

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Parallel Realities

No comment necessary.

Huge Anti-US Rally In Iraq

0assive rally of followers of a hardline anti-American cleric today, marching in Baghdad in a show of defiance as Iraqi leaders weigh whether to keep US troops in the country beyond the end of the year.26/05/2011 - 09:29:01

Scene in Fallujah in 2007

An estimated 70,000 supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr waved Iraqi flags and shouted “No, no, America!” as the tight columns of the Mahdi Army marched though one of Baghdad’s poorest neighbourhoods.
US, Israeli and British flags were painted on the pavement to be stomped on by the marching protesters, and Iraqi military helicopters buzzed overhead while soldiers stood guard to keep peace if needed.
The rally was a message to prime minister Nouri al-Maliki about the staunch opposition by Iraq’s most devout Shiites – the ones who grudgingly helped him clinch a second term in office last year – to a continued US military presence in 2012.
Under a security agreement between Washington and Baghdad, the 46,000 combat troops still in Iraq are required to leave by December 31. But Iraq’s widespread instability has led US and Iraqi leaders to reconsider the deadline for the sake of the country’s security.
Mr al-Sadr had not appeared nearly two hours after the start of the march, and his top aide, Salah al-Obeidi, said the cleric was unlikely to. Adoring crowds surged at a convoy of more than 10 white sports utility vehicles that was believed to be carrying Mr al-Sadr, but it drove away without stopping.
Though the rally was billed as a peaceful demonstration, Mr al-Obeidi said threats against the US still stand if the troops stay. “We will be obliged to fight and do our best to liberate our country,” he said.
American forces in Baghdad and southern Iraq have seen an increase in rocket and mortar attacks as well as roadside bombs in recent months. US officials have blamed the upturn on Shiite militias backed by Iran who are trying to take credit for driving American forces from Iraq.
Mr al-Obeidi said the point of the rally was to show that Iraqis are disciplined and can protect the country. A statement by parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, called the march “clear proof of Iraq’s unity”.

US officials counted more than 300 busloads – each carrying up to 70 passengers - who travelled from Iraq’s south for the rally, and were joined by some of the roughly two million who live in Baghdad’s north-east Sadr City neighbourhood where it was held.
An estimated 18,000 militiamen wore matching T-shirts bearing the Iraqi flag as spectators burned American and Israeli banners.

Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/major-iraq-rally-against-us-troops-506485.html#ixzz1NRqR8DLi

Obama In Britain - 'USA and UK Support Human Rights Across The World'

Rights, but not for Palestinians

By   Saree Makdisi May 25, 2011, 2:05 pm

"We support a set of universal rights," declared US President Barack Obama speech last week. "Those rights include free speech; the freedom of peaceful assembly; freedom of religion; equality for men and women under the rule of law; and the right to choose your own leaders — whether you live in Baghdad or Damascus; Sanaa or Tehran."He might as well have added, "but not, of course, if you live in Gaza or Qalqilya; Shatila or Burj el Barajneh; Jaffa or Nazareth or Jerusalem." Drone Victims in Pakistan in March, 2011 Thursday's speech was billed as Obama's second major attempt to reach out to the people of the Arab world, following a talk he gave in Cairo shortly after coming into office. But he made it perfectly clear that official America remains absolutely blind and deaf to the energy currently sweeping through the Arab world, especially when it comes to the all-important question of Palestine. Obama's speech represented in many senses the culmination of the political schizophrenia that has characterized American foreign policy for decades. On the one hand, he reiterated the tired old claim that America is the beacon of universal rights. On the other hand, he made it clearer than ever that, even if the United States now begrudgingly admits that some Arab citizens ought to enjoy those rights, it adamantly refuses to countenance their extension to the Palestinian people. Yet the fundamental rights for which the people of Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain, and Yemen have been struggling — and which the people of all other Arab countries aspire to as well, even if they don't always dare to say so out loud — are the same rights for which the Palestinian people have been struggling for over six decades now. Just as the police forces or armies of Syria, Egypt, Yemen and so on have been repressing their people's rights, the Israeli police, border guards, army and intelligence services have been repressing the rights of Palestinians. They do so by maintaining the occupation and colonization of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem; by protecting the apartheid regime within pre-1967 Israel that denies fundamental rights to Palestinian citizens of the state (beginning with refusing to acknowledge that they are in fact Palestinians, not just deracinated "Israeli Arabs" with no genuine national identity); and by continuing to use armed force to block the right of return of those Palestinians who were expelled from their homes over 60 years ago.President Obama could have taken this opportunity to acknowledge the continuity linking seamlessly together the uprisings or intifadas taking place across the Arab world and the Palestinian struggle. Instead, he sought to separate them. It is remarkable that a speech supposedly directed at the Arab world should have such little interest in actually engaging a reality that is patently obvious to all Arabs. But ultimately that does not matter. The point is that the Arab world is not what it was a year ago. The people of the region— including the Palestinians — have learned to believe in the possibility that, by sheer persistence, willpower and steadfastness ("somoud"), they can transform political realities that had once seemed stubbornly impervious to change. (Who, a year ago, would have imagined Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who seemed to have become a pharaoh of the modern age, thrown out of office in humiliation?) The calls for democracy and self-determination in the Arab world are not empty slogans tied to a fantasy version of America as the guarantor of freedom, but the products of extraordinary political sophistication at the popular level — and of an awareness that the Arab world is being transformed despite America, not because of it. For Arabs in general, and Palestinians in particular, the real lesson of President Obama's speech last Thursday, and, even more so, of the one that followed it at AIPAC, is that official America is not yet ready to take them seriously as agents and masters of their own destiny. The only conceivable Arab and Palestinian response is to stop taking official America so seriously in turn: to separate themselves from the official American narrative of a "peace process" (which has, in any case, proven its bankruptcy); to look to themselves to continue developing their own strategies for achieving their rights based on the nonviolent protests and symbolic actions that proved so successful in Egypt and Tunis and in countless other struggles for freedom in other times and places (the Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement is an exemplary case); and to insist that there will be no peace without justice for all Palestinians — the ones under occupation, the ones enduring apartheid inside Israel, and the ones whose right of return to their homeland has been blocked for six decades. Saree Makdisi is a professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA. He wrote, among other books, "Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation". This commentary is published by Daily News Egypt in collaboration with bitterlemons.org.

Obama's Hypocrisy Analysed

Barack Obama wants it both ways. Like every United States president since Bill Clinton, who partially brokered the now-defunct Oslo Accords in 1993, he aspires to act as a trusted intermediary in the 63-year old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, while simultaneously pandering to America’s massive pro-Israel lobby. These clashing goals have spurred him to propose an array of conflicting claims and positions that, aside from being fundamentally incompatible, are often simply painful to observe.

Over the course of four short days in mid-May, he managed, in three separate addresses - at the US State Department, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House briefing room, and at the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful flagship of the Israel lobby – to offer blatant discrepancies, of policy or omission, on nearly every aspect of the conflict. This jarring discord did nothing to bolster Washington’s role in the situation and, to careful listeners, reinforced its ultimate irrelevance to any genuine resolution of it. More Here from Reality Zone Blog.

Libya Not Another Debacle - Hague

William, 'Benghazi Bill' Hague has said that Libya will not become another Iraq debacle and bloodbath. This means of course that it will. Three Pinnochios awarded by WITC.  

From Reuters today - Foreign Secretary William Hague dismissed fears that Western nations were getting dragged into an Iraq-style conflict with their campaign against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.   F

ance, Britain and the United States are leading the air strikes on Libya, which started in March after the U.N. Security Council authorised "all necessary 

measures" to protect civilians from Gaddafi's forces.Richard Dannatt, former head of the British army, has noted parallels with the campaign in Iraq when U.S.-led forces ousted 

Saddam Hussein in 2003 but then faced a bloody insurgency.

"It's very different from Iraq because of course in the case of Iraq there were very large numbers of ground forces deployed from Western nations," Hague told BBC Radio 4.

"That's clearly not the case and it's not going to be the case in Libya. It's right to point to the need for a political process when Gaddafi goes, and that of course is something we discuss with the National Transitional Council in Libya," he added.

"They have put forward their plans for that, for an interim government including figures from the regime, for the holding of elections and those are the right plans to put forward."

Hague refused to confirm that Britain would send attack helicopters to strengthen NATO's military operations in Libya as France plans to do.

"We are intensifying the military pressure on the Gaddafi regime. This kind of deployment may be part of that intensified pressure and that is designed to protect civilians under the U.N. Security Council resolution," Hague said.

French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said on Monday that Britain would start deploying attack helicopters in Libya along with France as part of the NATO's operation there.

But British Armed Forces Minister Nick Harvey told parliament the British government had taken no decision.

Sarah Palin - The Real Story

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Bob Dylan At (Nearly) 70

Eloquent tribute here from Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque. Nothing to add, really.

'Now I'm all worn down by weepin'
My eyes are filled with tears, my lips are dry
If I catch my opponents ever sleepin'
I'll just slaughter them where they lie

Ain't talkin', just walkin'
Through the world mysterious and vague
Heart burnin', still yearnin'
Walking through the cities of the plague.'

-Aint Talkin' 2006

The Gulen Movement

Soon to be the subject of BBC Radio 4 documentary with Ed Stourton.

Watch the full episode. See more Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

Pakistan/US Foreign Relations Shambles

Patronising US attitude to Pakistan (and the world in general) exemplified here. This is a vignette on why the US will never succeed in its foreign policy 'strategy'.

SHORT CLIP.

Dark Energy In The Galaxy

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Iraq Debacle - Milliband Accuses Blair, Hague Defends Him

We have the ludicrous situation where Milliband is trying to wash his hands and blame his old mentor and Hague is trying to defend his old adversary and the indefensible. A good measure of the insanity of the whole enterprise. 8 years to create a chaotic Shiite theocracy loyal to Iran. Thanks to one and all. Dubya, Bliar, various hard-hat generals (many of them now disgraced), Cheney, Rummy, Condi, Jack Straw, Peter Mandelson, Alistair Campbell....... the roll of shame goes on. And where is the Middle East US/Israeli stooge Peace Envoy these days. Has he moved to Israel yet? I'm sure Rupert Murdoch would sell him a house in Tel Aviv.

Ryan Giggs and Twitter

Some people on Twitter have described Giggsy as as a sleazy, ugly, illiterate, diving bastard. We wouldn't dream of commenting. More here.

Brits Official Iraq Exit - Tails Between Legs

They left Iraq in the same chaos which they introduced with their bloody and inept invasion on the coat tails of George Bush and the Americans. We join the Iraqi people in saying 'thanks for nothing'. Eight years of shame. The last two spent skulking in Basra Airport bribing the militias not to attack them. Another glorious chapter in British military history.

US Gun Mentality - It Doesn't Just Kill Arabs

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AIPAC Urged Not To Boo Obama

Obama and Netanyahu will both address the leading pro-Israel lobbying group, the American-Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC), two days after Netanyahu publicly rebuked Obama's peace plans for the Middle East from inside the Oval Office. Such is the controversy aroused by Mr Obama's stance that AIPAC's leader, Lee Rosenberg, has been forced to write to members begging them not to boo the president when he addresses them Obama's clash with Netanyahu, who accused his host of wanting a "peace based on illusions", has sent a sharp divide down American, Israeli and international opinion.

Netanyahu objected to Obama's demand in a speech on Thursday for a Palestinian state based on borders from before the 1967 Six Day War, with revisions to take into consideration security concerns and some of Israel's settlements. Obama was immediately backed by the Middle East "Quartet", the mediation body comprising the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union. It issued a statement expressing its "strong support".

Stop Press - Obama Solves Palestine/Israel Problem

The Palestinian state needs to be 'viable'(hooray). Israel needs to be 'secure' (hooray). Obama has solved the Middle East crisis with hooray words. It's another example of the Peace Of Obama's Speechwriters. It makes you wonder what all the trouble was about in the first place. Thanks, O.

'Suicide' of Guantanamo Inmate

The prisoner was found dead in a recreation yard by guards conducting routine checks at the facility. He was identified as Inayatullah, a 37-year-old accused of being a member of AQ. Last year, a US federal judge dismissed a complaint by the families of two Guantanamo detainees who claimed that their deaths in 2006 had been covered up when the Pentagon ruled them suicides. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service will conduct an investigation after an autopsy by a military pathologist, the military said. Inayatullah's body will then be prepared for repatriation to Afghanistan.
From the Guardian here.

Afghanistan War - Situation Deteriorates

Iraq - Exit UK, Tail Between Legs

...the chaos and death that followed, the political recriminations that continue to this day, and the poisonous effect it all had on international relations, seems to have ensured that the government would rather not dwell on the official end to this most controversial of military campaigns.The withdrawal was announced today by the secretary of state for defence, Dr Liam Fox, in a written statement to the House of Commons published just after noon, just as Prime Minister's Question Time was under way.The title of the statement - one of 10 published today - was 'End of UK-Iraq Bilateral Agreement', which is true enough, but disguises the real significance.David Cameron didn't think to mention the withdrawal during the weekly bait between him and Ed Miliband at Prime Minister's Question Time.

The UK troops who were stationed in Basra spent their last year banged up in the airport bribing the militias not to attack them. I wonder if anyone will mention that in the House of Commons.

Overseas Aid Should Be Overseas Bombing - Liam Fox

UK soldiers circling in a complex military manoeuvre

If anyone doubted that Liam Fox is just a Neocon with a Scottish (Scoddish?) accent, they need to look no further than this. When he says that the Overseas Aid budget could be used for 'something else' I wonder what he could possibly have in mind.

The War You Don't See - John Pilger Trailer

The War You Don't See (trailer) from John Pilger on Vimeo.

Bahrein - Friend Of America

Robert Fisk on Bahrein In full here via Reality Zone

Christopher Hill, a former a US assistant secretary of state for east Asia who was ambassador to Iraq – and usually a very obedient and obsequious American diplomat – wrote the other day that “the notion that a dictator can claim the sovereign right to abuse his people has become unacceptable”. Unless, of course – and Mr Hill did not mention this – you happen to live in Bahrain. On this tiny island, a Sunni monarchy, the al-Khalifas, rule a majority Shia population and have responded to democratic protests with death sentences, mass arrests, the imprisonment of doctors for letting patients die after protests and an “invitation” to Saudi forces to enter the country. They have also destroyed dozens of mosques with all the thoroughness of a 9/11 pilot. But then, let’s remember that most of the 9/11 killers were Saudis.

Dodgy Dossier - Blair's Exaggerated Rhetoric

The DIS were furious about the dossier at the time it was written, and tried to rein in MI6 and the FCO, and particularly chief lie-writer John Scarlett. Why has it taken 8 years for someone senior in the intelligence service to openly speak out? More here.

Campbell Evidence To Chilcott Challenged

We all knew that the words Alistair, Campbell and liar were synonymous anyway but this is the first time a senior intelligence officer has publicly challenged his and Blair's lies. Major General Michael Laurie who was director general in the Defence Intelligence Staff, responsible for commanding and delivering raw and analysed intelligence, said: "I am writing to comment on the position taken by Alastair Campbell during his evidence to you … when he stated that the purpose of the dossier was not to make a case for war; I and those involved in its production saw it exactly as that, and that was the direction we were given." Full details here.

Bin Laden Death - Film Clip With Robert Fisk

The Decline Of America

An unusual(for this site) right-wing view that America is going round the U-bend. Some of this stuff is actually true. 

'The culture is awash in the raw sewage of vulgarity and avarice. The family is shattered. The average American cannot articulate why marriage is not a unisex institution. One baby in three is born out of wedlock. Another million per year are snuffed out in the womb. We are bound by no common faith or culture. Mass immigration, much of it illegal, without accompanying assimilation may deprive us of a common language.'

Killing Bin Laden - Why Now?

Thanks to Reality Zone for the interesting clip here. James Gundun of The Trench Blog says the reason for the timing is :

To make him relevant again may encompass the multitude of reasons to pull the trigger now. By positioning bin Laden on the opposite side of American values, the Obama administration is acting as though it has fully supported all democratic uprisings in the Middle East. Then, by creating the perception of an active bin Laden, ever-expanding military operations are justified.Now was the perfect time - 2012 would have been too obvious to the masses.

Bin Laden Photographs Grotesquerie - Film Clip Of 'Issues'

I know this is old news already but this clip is interesting, if for nothing else, on account of the grotesquerie of the US securocrats and their media groupies and the crassness of their comments. It's the first time I have seen Panetta speak. He is a spaceman if ever there was one.

Mercenary Gravy Train Continues In Iraq

The other security contractor is the British firm Global Strategies Group, which won a task order to provide both protective and static security for diplomats at the Consulate General in the southern city of Basra. That contract is worth up to $401 million over five years.Global is something of a jack of all trades in the defense contracting world. In Afghanistan, it guards the Kabul airport and worked to screen the movement of cash through it, an anti-corruption measure that appears to have earned it the ire of President Hamid Karzai. But it’s also held contracts spanning from engineering ($358 million, with the Naval Research Laboratory) to providing vehicle transponders ($285,000, with the Army ) to lots of security-guard duties for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. In full HERE

Bin Laden Assassination - Archbishop Slams White House

The heroes who shot the unarmed victims in Pakistan 

The Archbishop of Canterbury no less has added his voice to those expressing their disgust at the events in Pakistan. Most of his acolytes had  beaten him to it over the last 48 hours. The sleaze and lies continue to degrade into a fiasco of Bushite proportions.

Fallujah, Iraq 2004 - Misrata, Libya 2011

'A health centre was bombed, killing 60 patients and support staff. The Independent reported claims that 'a large number of people, including children, were killed by American snipers'. Refugees also accurately reported that the US had used cluster bombs and white phosphorus weapons. A Red Cross official estimated that 'at least 800 civilians' were killed in the first nine days of the assault. Dr Rafa'ah al-Iyssaue, the director of Fallujah's main hospital, said that more than 550 of 700 bodies recovered were women and children. Last year, the Independent reported:

'Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study.' Contrast with media coverage in Libya and full story from Media Lens here.

Apache Tribe Fury At Obama

News about the code name for the assassination mission spread quickly across Indian Country and on social network sites, resulting in a groundswell of criticism against the US government. Several tribes and tribal leaders issued statements of disapproval, while many Facebook and Twitter posted angry comments, some using historical photos of the Apache leader for their profile pictures.

Geronimo is a legend among Indian tribes as a freedom fighter and champion against American expansionism, racism, bullying and massacres. Ring a bell?

Death of Bin Laden - White House Spin Changes By The Hour

The president's assistant national security advisor John Brennan had used the facts he was giving out to add his and the Pentagon's moral message - this was the sort of man Bin Laden was, cowering behind his wife, using her as a shield. Nice narrative. Not true. In fact, according to Carney this unarmed woman tried to attack the heavily armed Navy Seal. In another circumstance that might even be described as brave.

Jay Carney said that Bin Laden didn't have to have a gun to be resisting. He said there was a great deal of resistance in general and a highly volatile fire fight. The latest version says Bin Laden's wife charged at the US commando and was shot in the leg, but not killed. The two brothers, the couriers and owners of the compound, and a woman were killed on the ground floor of the main building. This version doesn't mention Bin Laden's son, who also died.
Change by change, lie by lie - full story from the Guardian here.

Osama Bin Laden's Useful Death - By Paul Craig Roberts

Via Reality Zone.

In a propaganda piece reeking of US Triumphalism, two alleged journalists, Adam Goldman and Chris Brummitt, of the Associated Press or, rather, of the White House Ministry of Truth, write, or copy off a White House or CIA press release that “Osama bin Laden, the terror mastermind killed by Navy SEALs in an intense firefight, was hunted down based on information first gleaned years ago (emphasis added) from detainees at secret CIA prison sites in Eastern Europe, officials disclosed Monday.”

How many Americans will notice that the first paragraph of the “report” justifies CIA prisons and torture? Without secret prisons and torture “the terror mastermind” would still be running free, despite having died from renal failure in 2001.

How many Americans will have the wits to wonder why the “terror mastermind”--who defeated not merely the CIA and the FBI, but all 16 US intelligence agencies along with Israel’s Mossad and the intelligence services of NATO, who defeated NORAD, the National Security Council, the Pentagon and Joint Chiefs of Staff, the US Air Force, and Air Traffic Control, who caused security procedures to fail four times in US airports in one hour on the same day, who caused the state-of-the-art Pentagon air defenses to fail, and who managed to fly three airliners into three buildings with pilots who did not know how to fly--has not pulled off any other attack in almost ten years? Do Americans really believe that a government’s security system that can so totally fail when confronted with a few Saudi Arabians with box cutters can renew itself to perfection overnight? How many Americans will notice the resurrection of the long missing bin Laden as “terror mastermind” after his displacement by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Guantanamo prisoner who confessed to being the “mastermind of 9/11” after being water-boarded 183 times? Americans are too busy celebrating to think, a capability that seems to have been taken out of their education. Americans are so enthralled over the death of bin Laden that they do not wonder why information gleamed years ago would take so long to locate a person who was allegedly living in a million-dollar building equipped with all the latest communication equipment next to the Pakistani Military Academy. Allegedly, the “most wanted criminal” was not moving from hide-out to hide-out in desolate mountains, but ensconced in luxury quarters in broad daylight. Nevertheless, despite his obvious location, it took the CIA years to find him after claiming to have gained information of his whereabouts out of captives in secret prisons. This is the image of the CIA as the new Keystone Cops.

In an immediate follow-up to the announcement that the Navy SEALs and CIA mercenaries acted in an exemplary fashion following the rules of engagement while a cowardly bin Laden hid behind a woman shield when the gunfire erupted, we have from the pressitutes that “U.S. officials conceded the risk of renewed attack. The terrorists almost certainly will attempt to avenge bin Laden’s death, CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in a memo. . . . Within a few hours, the Department of Homeland Security warned that bin Laden’s death was likely to provide motivation for attacks from ‘homegrown violent extremists’.”
John Brennan, White House counter-terrorism adviser, told reporters that “it was inconceivable that the terrorist fugitive didn’t have support in Pakistan where his hideout had been custom built six years ago in a city with a heavy military presence.”
So the claimed murder of bin Laden by the US in a sovereign foreign country with which the US is not at war, a crime under international law, has set up three more self-serving possibilities:
-Terrorists will avenge bin Laden’s death, says the CIA, setting up another false flag attack to keep the profits flowing into the military/security complex and the power flowing into the unaccountable CIA. -Homeland Security can extend the domestic police state, abuse of travelers, and arrests of war protestors.
-And Pakistan is under the gun of invasion and takeover (for India, of course) for shielding bin Laden.The Israel Lobby’s representatives in the US Congress quickly fell in with the agenda. Senator Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, declared that the Pakistani Army and intelligence agency “have a lot of questions to answer, given the location, the length of time and the apparent fact that this was actually--this facility was actually build for bin Laden, and its closeness to the central location of the Pakistani army.”
The two reporters question nothing in the government’s propaganda. Instead, the reporters join in the celebration. Nevertheless they let slip that “officials were weighing the release of at least one photo taken of bin Laden’s body as part of what Brennan called an effort to make sure ‘nobody has any basis to try and deny the death.’”
As the Guardian and European newspapers have revealed, the photo of the dead bin Laden is a fake. As the alleged body has been dumped into the ocean, nothing remains but the word of the US government, which lied about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and al Qaeda connections, about yellowcake, about Iranian nukes, and, according to thousands of experts, about 9/11. Suddenly the government is telling us the truth about bin Laden’s death? If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I’ll let you have for a good price.
My initial interpretation of the faked bin Laden death was that Obama needed closure of the Afghan war and occupation in order to deal with the US budget deficit. Subsequent statements from Obama regime officials suggest that the agenda might be to give Americans a piece of war victory in order to boost their lagging enthusiasm. The military/security complex will become richer and more powerful, and Americans will be rewarded with vicarious pleasure in victory over enemies.