Archive for the ‘USA’ Category
May 31, 2010
On Sunday, Israel murdered human rights workers who were attempting to deliver 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, because Gaza has been virtually cut off from the outside world by Israel. At least 19 people were reportedly killed and dozens injured when Israeli troops boarded the 6-ship Freedom Flotilla convoy in international waters and immediately fired live ammunition at the people on board the ships. The convoy was comprised of 700 people from 50 nationalities and included a Nobel laureate, members of parliament from Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Turkey and Malaysia, as well as Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset and a Holocaust survivor.
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Tags:breach of international law, human rights workers murdered, humanitarian help, Israel’s armed attack, Israeli blockade of Gaza, Marjorie Cohn
Posted in Commentary, crime, Gaza, Human rights, Palestinians, Uncategorized, USA, Zionist Israel | 1 Comment »
May 30, 2010
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A US Marine helicopter takes off from Futenma air base in Okinawa.
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Japan’s Social Democratic Party, SDP, has decided to leave the ruling coalition government amid a row over the controversial presence of the US military in the country.
SDP chief Mizuho Fukushima informed reporters about the decision on Sunday after meeting with party executives. The move follows a dispute within the cabinet over the US airbase in Okinawa.
Fukushima, who calls for the immediate relocation of the base, has slammed Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s decision to keep the US compound on the island — despite his campaign promises to relocate the base.
The airbase has been under US command since after World War II. More than half of some 47,000 US troops in Japan are stationed in Okinawa.
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Tags:47000 US troops in Okinawa, demand of Okinawans, Japan and United States, Japan's Social Democratic Party quits coalition, US airbase in Okinawa, US military base in Okinawa
Posted in Commentary, imperialism, Uncategorized, US policy, USA | Leave a Comment »
May 30, 2010
MJ Rosenberg, The Huffington Post, May 28, 2010
It’s happening again.
The same forces — with a few new additions and minus a few smart defectors — who pushed the United States into a needless and deadly war with Iraq are now organizing for the next war.
This time the target is Iran, which, just like Iraq, is said to be on the verge of creating weapons of mass destruction.
Also, just like Iraq, its president is a supposed madman determined to destroy Israel.
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Tags:Bush and Iraq war, gang of war profiteers, Iraq and WMD pretext, Iraq war, MJ Rosenberg, Obama Administration and Iran, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, The Cheney gang, United States, war
Posted in Commentary, Iran, Uncategorized, US policy, USA, war | Leave a Comment »
May 29, 2010
Jack A. Smith, Antiwar.com, May 29, 2010
“Terrorists” and “terrorism” have become Washington’s monomania since 9/11, guiding the foreign/military policies of the American superstate and holding its population in thrall.
“The single biggest threat to U.S. security, both short-term, medium-term and long-term,” President Barack Obama said April 11, is the possibility that terrorists might obtain a nuclear weapon. The second biggest threat to world history’s mightiest military state, it goes without saying, are terrorists without nuclear weapons but armed with box-cutters, rifles or homemade explosives.
It’s “terrorism” 24/7 in the United States — the product of a conscious effort by the Bush Administration to keep the American people in the constant clutches of existential fear, in large part to justify launching endless aggressive wars. Anything goes if the target is said to be “terrorism,” as long as the Pentagon’s violence takes place in smaller, weaker countries usually populated by non-Europeans.
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Tags:1991 Gulf War, Bush-Obama anti-terrorism policy, Iraq war, Jack A. Smith, Obma and Afghan war, Palestine, Pentagon’s violence, President Obama and Iran, terrorism and terrorists, US dominance over Mideast regimes, US threats against iran
Posted in Afghanistan, Commentary, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Palestinians, President Barack Obama, Uncategorized, US policy, USA, war, war crimes | Leave a Comment »
May 27, 2010
Willam Fisher, Inter Press Service North America
NEW YORK, 26 May (IPS) – Human rights advocates are expressing shock at a federal court ruling that detainees held by the United States in Afghanistan do not have the right to challenge their detention in a U.S. federal court – and dismay that their path to a successful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court may be blocked.
A lawyer for the detainees, Tina Foster, warned that if the precedent stood, U.S. President Barack Obama and future presidents would be able to “kidnap people from other parts of the world and lock them away for the rest of their lives” without ever having to prove their case in court.
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Tags:Afghans, Bagram prison, federal court ruling, human rights groups, United States detainees, Willam Fisher
Posted in Afghanistan, Commentary, Uncategorized, USA, war | Leave a Comment »
May 27, 2010
Like vampires, the neocons never die. They constantly revive themselves, going where the vein is richest, eager to feed upon new blood.
By Ira Chernus, AlterNet, May 27, 2010
Remember the neoconservatives? Maybe you don’t. Their death was announced on the cover of Time magazine long before George W. Bush left the White House. By now you might think that they’re, thankfully, only a footnote to the history of a frightening bygone era.
But no. Like vampires, the neocons never die. They constantly revive themselves, going where the vein is richest, eager to feed upon new blood. Now — we should have seen it coming — they are sinking their fangs into the Tea Party. That’s where the fresh political blood is, so that’s where the neocons are.
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Tags:American neocons, American neoconservatives, Arthur C. Brooks, Ira Chernus
Posted in Commentary, Uncategorized, US policy, USA | Leave a Comment »
May 27, 2010
Breaking the Israeli Siege of Gaza May Lead to an Attack at Sea, Detention Camps and Deportation
Ann Wright, CommonDreams.org, May 27, 2010
By the time you read this, we will be on the high seas of the Mediterranean (we hope the seas will not be too high).
Our two U.S. flagged Free Gaza boats, will join two other passenger ships, a 600 passenger ship from Turkey sponsored by the Turkish humanitarian organization, Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH) and a 50 passenger ship from Athens sponsored by the European Campaign Against the Siege and the Greek/Swedish Ships to Gaza campaign, to sail to the shores of Gaza to break the Israeli naval blockade of the 1.5 million citizens in Gaza.
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Tags:"The Audacity of Hope", Ann Wright, humanitarin aid ships, Israeli naval blockade of Gaza, israeli siege of siege of Gaza, Palestinians in Gaza
Posted in Commentary, Gaza, Palestinians, Uncategorized, USA, Zionist Israel | Leave a Comment »
May 26, 2010
By Ludwig Watzal, MWC News, Thursday, 27 May 2010
Nobody seems to talk anymore about the human sufferings and the costs of the US-led invasion of Iraq. Under President Barack Obama the US is still unwilling to end the illegal occupation of this country and take the partners of the “coaltion of the willing” and live the country. All the talk about a prospective “withdrawal” from Iraq seems mere rhetoric.
Large military facilities are popping up like mushrooms all over the place, and in Baghdad they are building an embassy of the size of Vatican City. Modern history tells us that when the US takes over a country it will stay until it is thrown out like was the case in Vietnam or Iran. The long-term prospects of remaining an occupier in Iraq or Afghanistan are rather dim, taking the history of resistance against foreign occupation in both countries into account.
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Tags:crimes against humanity, death of more than one million Iraqis, humanitarian situation in Iraq, Iraq under occupation, Ludwig Watzal, US-led invasion of Iraq, war crimes
Posted in crime, imperialism, Iraq, Uncategorized, US policy, USA, war, war crimes | Leave a Comment »
May 26, 2010
Jeremy Scahill, The Nation, May 25, 2010
The United States military is in the process of taking bids from private war contractors to secure and ship massive amounts of US military equipment through sensitive areas of Pakistan into Afghanistan where it will then be distributed to various US Forward Operating Bases and other facilities. According to the contract solicitation [PDF], “There will be an average of 5000” import shipments “transiting the Afghanistan and Pakistan ground lines of communication (GLOC) per month, along with 500 export shipments.” The solicitation states that, “This number may increase or decrease due to US military transportation requirements,” adding, “The contractor must maintain a constant capability to surge to any location within Afghanistan or Pakistan” within a 30-day period. Among the duties the contractor will perform is “intelligence, to include threat assessments throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
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Tags:Afghanistan and Pakistan, contractors, Jeremy Scahill, Kestral Logistics, NCL Holdings, United States military, US military equipment
Posted in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uncategorized, US policy, USA, war | Leave a Comment »
May 26, 2010
Shouldn’t the world welcome the actions of two significant, responsible, democratic, and rational states to intervene and help check the foolishnesses of decades of US policy on Iran?
Graham E. Fuller, The Christian Science Monitor, May 24, 2010
Washington
If Washington thinks it now faces complications on getting United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran, that’s not the half of it. A greater obstacle is the subtle change introduced into international power relationships by the actions of Brazil and Turkey that has accompanied it.
These two medium-size powers, Brazil and Turkey, have just challenged the guiding hand of Washington in determining nuclear strategy towards Iran. They undertook their own initiative to persuade Iran to accede to a deal on the handling of nuclear fuel issues. Not only was that initiative entirely independent, it moved ahead in the face of fairly crude American warnings to both states not to contemplate it – even though it closely paralleled one offered to Iran last year that fell through, mainly due to Iranian maneuvering and its fundamental distrust of Washington’s intent and blustering style.
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Tags:Brazil and Turkey on Iran nuclear policy, Graham E. Fuller, Iran, sanctions against Iran, United States, Wasshington policy
Posted in Commentary, Iran, Uncategorized, US policy, USA | Leave a Comment »
Peace and Justice Post 
Cohn: Israel Murders Human Rights Workers Delivering Humanitarian Aid
May 31, 2010On Sunday, Israel murdered human rights workers who were attempting to deliver 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, because Gaza has been virtually cut off from the outside world by Israel. At least 19 people were reportedly killed and dozens injured when Israeli troops boarded the 6-ship Freedom Flotilla convoy in international waters and immediately fired live ammunition at the people on board the ships. The convoy was comprised of 700 people from 50 nationalities and included a Nobel laureate, members of parliament from Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Turkey and Malaysia, as well as Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset and a Holocaust survivor.
Continues >>
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Tags:breach of international law, human rights workers murdered, humanitarian help, Israel’s armed attack, Israeli blockade of Gaza, Marjorie Cohn
Posted in Commentary, crime, Gaza, Human rights, Palestinians, Uncategorized, USA, Zionist Israel | 1 Comment »