Peace and Justice Post

by Paul Craig Roberts, LewRockwell. com, Aug. 8, 2011

Recently by Paul Craig Roberts: Creating Evidence Where There Is None

In my recent article, “Creating Evidence Where There Is None,” about the alleged killing of Osama bin Laden by a commando team of US Seals in Abbottabad, Pakistan, I provided a link to a Pakistani National TV interview with Muhammad Bashir, who lives next door to the alleged “compound” of Osama bin Laden. I described the story that Bashir gave of the “attack” and its enormous difference from the one told by the US government. In Bashair’s account, every member of the landing party and anyone brought from the house died when the helicopter exploded on lift-off. I wrote that a qualified person could easily provide a translation of the interview, but that no American print or TV news organization had investigated Bashir’s account.

An attorney with a British Master of Laws degree in international law and diplomacy, who was born in Pakistan, provided the translation below. He writes: “I have no problem with being identified as the translator, but would prefer to remain anonymous.”

The translator provides these definitions and clarifications:

“Gulley” is generally referred (in Urdu) to a sidewalk or pavement. Also for the space between two houses.

“kanal” is a traditional unit of land area, so that one kanal equals exactly 605 square yards or 1/8 Acre; this is equivalent to about 505.857 square meters.

Muhammad Bashir refers to himself as “We.” This is common respectable language for the self; to use the plural term instead of singular. The English language equivalent would be the “Royal, We.”

Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan.

The translator:

I have translated the entire text of the video.

Continues >>

By Stephen Lendman, opednews.com,   Aug. 7. 2011

Judge nations by how they treat all people, whether equally, or advantaging some over others. Judge them harshly if they persecute some for political advantage.

In America, people of color and Muslims are fair game. It’s longstanding policy based on prejudicial attitudes, stereotypes, deep-seated racism, and notions of corrupted Western values, high-mindedness, and moral superiority.

Post-9/11, in fact, Muslims are perceived as barbaric, violent, uncivilized, gun-toting terrorists, easily targeted, accused, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned – not for wrongdoing, for their faith in American at the wrong time. As a result, it’s no surprise that when suspects are named, media reports automatically convict them in the court of public opinion.

Continues >>

The carnage inflicted on Japan on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945, marked a dark turning point in American history. Having achieved victory over Nazism in Europe and the strategic defeat of fascist Japan, the United States took the unprecedented step of dropping atomic bombs on two nearly defenseless cities, an act which has since been wrapped in mythology, writes Gary G. Kohls.

By Gary G. Kohls, Consortium News, Aug. 7, 2011

Aug. 6 was the 66^th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, the whole truth of which has been heavily censored and mythologized ever since the news of the event was broadcast to the millions of war-weary Americans who were justifiably happy that the awful war was finally over.

Of course, those millions – and hundreds of millions of gullible children who may have read about the war in school – also understandably swallowed the post-war propaganda in their history books as they “learned” about the glorious end of the war.

We now know that the narrative contained false information that was orchestrated by war-justifying militarists (and assorted uber-patiotic historians) starting with General Douglas MacArthur.

Continues >>

Yahoo! News, Aug. 5, 2011

Source: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US officials and their counterparts in Bahrain, which crushed month-long protests in mid-March, have renewed a defense pact, officials said Friday.

The two countries inked a 10-year defense agreement on October 28, 1991, seven months after the Gulf War, that was renewed in October 2001 for the same duration.

As early as 2002, the administration of former US president George W. Bush and the Bahraini regime secretly extended the accord for another five years, to 2016, The Washington Post reported. But Pentagon officials declined to confirm those dates to AFP.

A US official who requested anonymity, however, said that “it would be accurate to say that it goes beyond that date” of October 2011.

Yet the official cautioned that: “Obviously, it’s a very delicate situation over there right now, so you never know what could change.”

Continues >>

Interior ministry’s approval marks final planning stage for project that has garnered fierce criticism from Palestinians, international community.

Middle East Online, Aug.4, 2011

Expanding at the expense of Palestinian land JERUSALEM – Israel’s interior ministry has given final approval for the construction of 900 new homes in the east Jerusalem settlement neighbourhood of Har Homa, a ministry spokeswoman said on Thursday. “This is a programme which was approved by the regional (planning and construction) committee two years ago,” spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said. “According to the planning process in Israel, (it) needed the completion of amendments, therefore it was finally approved today.” The approval marks the final planning stage for a project that has garnered fierce criticism from the Palestinians and the international community. Continues >>

Today is the 66th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Though most Americans are unaware of the fact, increasing numbers of historians now recognize the United States did not need to use the atomic bomb to end the war against Japan in 1945. Moreover, this essential judgment was expressed by the vast majority of top American military leaders in all three services in the years after the war ended: Army, Navy and Army Air Force. Nor was this the judgment of “liberals,” as is sometimes thought today. In fact, leading conservatives were far more outspoken in challenging the decision as unjustified and immoral than American liberals in the years following World War II.

Continues >>

by former Ambassador Craig Murray,  August 5, 2011

I was sacked for opposing – within the Foreign Office – a secret UK government policy of cooperation with torture. Not only was I sacked, I was charged with eighteen reputation wrecking allegations, ranging from sexual blackmail through financial impropriety to alcoholism, of all of which I was eventually cleared. Throughout this process and still today, the Government claimed I was lying about the policy of collaboration with torture.

They never denied any of the detail of my evidence, but rather attacked my “credibility”, which aided by the corrupt press/media nexus was sufficient to keep my information out of the mainstream.

Now the Guardian has irrefutable evidence that what I said is true, and there was indeed a secret policy of torture which implicates the top of the British political, diplomatic and intelligence establishments. Simon Jenkins nailed the extent of this a year ago, although I think I am entitled to point out there was at least one senior UK civil servant who actively tried to stand against it – me.

Continues >>

Greg Mitchell, The Nation, Aug. 3, 2011

In the weeks following the atomic attacks on Japan sixty-six years ago this week, and then for decades afterward, the United States engaged in airtight suppressionof all film shot in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombings. This included vivid color footage shot by U.S. military crews and black-and-white Japanese newsreel film.

The public did not see any of the newsreel footage for twenty-five years, and the shocking US military film remained hidden for nearly four decades. While the suppression of nuclear truths stretched over decades, Hiroshima sank into “a kind of hole in human history,” as the writer Mary McCarthy observed. The United States engaged in a costly and dangerous nuclear arms race. Thousands of nuclear warheads remain in the world, often under loose control; the United States retains its “first-strike” nuclear policy; and much of the world is partly or largely dependent on nuclear power plants, which pose their own hazards.

Continues >>

Anders Breivik’s July 22 Oslo rampage highlighted a problem far greater than him, a topic three previous articles discussed, stopping short of what this article addresses. More on how Europe is affected below.

In America, hardline anti-government groups like the Sovereign Citizen movement highlight how far right America’s shifted since the 1980s. Their adherents (Sovereigns) believe they alone should decide what laws to obey or ignore, not elected officials, judges, juries or law enforcement bodies.

They also oppose paying taxes, promote racial hate, attract white supremacists, and resort to violence to assert their will. In addition, they subscribe to other extremist views, advocating a subculture run exclusively by their rules. Without central leadership, it’s impossible to know their size, though it’s believed to be many thousands.

America’s Militia movement is also politically significant, paramilitaries against government restricting their rights, especially to bear arms. It represents an outgrowth of independent survivalist, anti-tax, and other right-wing Patriot movement subculture groups, believing government is hostile to their sovereignty.

Continues >>

President Barack Obama talks with staff during a Domestic Policy Council meeting in the Oval Office, July 28, 2011. (Photo: Pete Souza / White House)

By gollies, America’s workaday majority of middle-class and poor people have a fighter on our side in Washington. Unfortunately, that fighter is Barack Obama.

On Sunday, he waved his white hankie of surrender in the debt ceiling battle, agreeing to a disastrous deal ruthlessly pushed by the loopiest of the tea party extremists in the Republican House. It slashes some nearly $1 trillion from national programs that ordinary Americans count on,

puts Social Security and Medicare at risk, and promises to make our depressed economy, and even the deficit, worse.

Continues >>