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The Military-Industrial-Humanitarian Complex: Spreading Western Hegemony Under the Guise of Virtue

Friday October 5, 2018

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Traditionally honorable words such as "humanitarian" and "democracy" have come to acquire a darker and more cynical meaning following their misappropriation to justify the invasion of sovereign nations and to promote the spread of Western military and cultural dominance across the globe. The mainstream media, alongside some human rights activists, assist these ventures by helping disseminate mistruths and by tapping into the emotions of fear, anger and revulsion to soften public opinion and make aggression against a sovereign state appear justified.
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US Military in Syria Ready for Long-Endurance Mission

Thursday October 4, 2018

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Speaking at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 29, Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem demanded that US, French and Turkish forces leave his country immediately or be dealt with “accordingly”. Indeed, with the Islamic State reduced to insignificance, they have no justification for being there. The message is primarily addressed to Washington. Trained and equipped by the United States, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) control roughly 25-30 percent of Syria, including areas which hold the bulk of the country's oil and gas reserves. The group has pressed for Syria’s division along federal lines with autonomous cantons created in various regions. It has already set up cantonal administrations in areas it controls with their own revenues, police and public services.

The SDF is backed by 2,200 US troops on the ground illegally operating in a foreign country. The forward operating base at Al Tanf is manned by American military. It is located at the strategic border area between Iraq, Syria and Jordan. Last month, the Marine Corps conducted an exercise to demonstrate that the United States is there for the long haul.

Presidential candidate Trump promised to stay out of foreign wars. In April, the US president said the forces would leave Syria soon with the decision taken “very quickly” on how long they will remain there. “We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now,” he stated. On Sept.24, US National Security Adviser (NSA) John Bolton said the US would remain in Syria "until Iran leaves". “We’re not going to leave as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders, and that includes Iranian proxies and militias,” the NSA formulated the US position. According to Military Times, his statement was “signaling a fundamental shift from the current counter-terrorism operations to a mission focused more on geopolitical maneuvering and proxy warfare.”The source believes the White House has revealed a massive mission creep. It cited James Phillips, senior research fellow for Middle Eastern affairs at the Heritage Foundation, who said. “I would prefer to keep US troops there indefinitely, because they also serve a purpose in blocking Iran’s freedom of movement and access to lines of communication that would connect western Iraq with Lebanon.”
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James Comey and the Unending Bush Torture Scandal

Thursday October 4, 2018

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The vast regime of torture created by the Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks continues to haunt America. The political class and most of the media have never dealt honestly with the profound constitutional corruption that such practices inflicted. Instead, torture enablers are permitted to pirouette as heroic figures on the flimsiest evidence.
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UN Rules Against US On Iran Sanctions; Pompeo Vows More Sanctions

Thursday October 4, 2018

After the US unilaterally pulled out of the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement and re-applied sanctions early this summer, Iran, citing a Treaty of Amity with the US, took the case to the International Court of Justice seeking among, other things, a ruling against US blocking trade in medical, food, and civil aviation products. The UN court ruled partially in favor of Iran, leading Secretary of State Pompeo to announce it was unilaterally pulling out of the treaty and blaming Iran for politicizing the court. Meanwhile, a newly uncovered US intelligence document from 2011 reveals that the US determination to overthrow Assad in Syria was driven by a desire to hit at Iran. It's all about Iran! Tune in to today's Liberty Report...
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Trump To Saudi King: Pay Up For US Military Protection!

Wednesday October 3, 2018

Frustrated by the Saudi refusal to increase oil production by two million barrels per day, President Trump said at a rally yesterday that absent US military protection the Saudi government would not last two weeks. He said the Saudis should "pay up" if they want to remain in charge. Why are oil prices going up? Who's to blame? The best answer comes from a surprising source. Tune in to today's Liberty Report...
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That Sign Telling You How Fast You’re Driving May be Spying on You

Wednesday October 3, 2018

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The next time you drive past one of those road signs with a digital readout showing how fast you’re going, don’t simply assume it’s there to remind you not to speed. It may actually be capturing your license plate data.

According to recently released US federal contracting data, the Drug Enforcement Administration will be expanding the footprint of its nationwide surveillance network with the purchase of “multiple” trailer-mounted speed displays “to be retrofitted as mobile LPR [License Plate Reader] platforms.” The DEA is buying them from RU2 Systems Inc., a private Mesa, Arizona company. How much it’s spending on the signs has been redacted.

Two other, apparently related contracts, show that the DEA has hired a small machine shop in California, and another in Virginia, to conceal the readers within the signs. An RU2 representative said the company providing the LPR devices themselves is a Canadian firm called Genetec.

The DEA launched its National License Plate Reader Program in 2008; it was publicly revealed for the first time during a congressional hearing four years after that. The DEA’s most recent budget describes the program as “a federation of independent federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement license plate readers linked into a cooperative system, designed to enhance the ability of law enforcement agencies to interdict drug traffickers, money launderers or other criminal activities on high drug and money trafficking corridors and other public roadways throughout the U.S.,” primarily along the southwest border region, and the country’s northeast and southeast corridors.
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Don't count on the FBI to clear up the Kavanaugh-Ford mess. Its record is flawed.

Wednesday October 3, 2018

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After last week’s explosive congressional hearing, the Senate and the Trump administration agreed to reopen the FBI background check into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Former FBI chief James Comey wrote Sunday that “the FBI is up for this” because it is “full” of "people who just want to figure out what’s true." 

But truth has often been a scarce commodity in FBI investigations. Consider these cases stretching back decades:

- The chief of the FBI’s violent crimes section was sent to prison in 1997 for destroying a report criticizing FBI conduct in a 1992 showdown at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. A federal judge lambasted the FBI and Justice Department for misleading testimony and withholding key evidence in that landmark case.

- When a 1993 FBI tank assault against the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, ended in an inferno, FBI officials emphatically denied that they had any link to the fire. After it was revealed six years later that the FBI tanks had fired pyrotechnic devices during the assault, Attorney General Janet Reno sent US Marshals to seize Waco-related evidence at FBI headquarters.
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The Scary Side of the Technological Police State

Wednesday October 3, 2018

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It’s a given that Big Brother is always watching us. Unfortunately, thanks to the government’s ongoing efforts to build massive databases using emerging surveillance, DNA and biometrics technologies, Big Brother (and his corporate partners in crime) is getting even creepier and more invasive, intrusive and stalker-like.
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Note To NATO - You Don't 'Take Out' Missiles Without Having A War

Tuesday October 2, 2018

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Earlier today the US ambassador to NATO threatened to "take out" a new kind of Russian missile:
The US envoy to NATO on Tuesday said that Russia must halt development of new missiles that could carry nuclear warheads and warned that the United States could 'take out' the system if it becomes operational.
The US and Russia have for some time disagreed about the INF treaty. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed in 1987 between the Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev and US President Reagan. It prohibits land based (not sea based) nuclear capable systems with a range of more than 500 kilometers and less than 5,500 kilometers. The agreement came to pass after the Soviets stationed SS-20 missiles in East Europe. NATO responded with the Pershing II deployment. The problem with these missiles was warning time. Fired at a relative short range they threatened to overwhelm one side before it could respond. The missiles thus destroyed the equilibrium of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). The INF treaty banned these missiles.

Russia said for years that the US broke the INF agreement when it stationed missile defense systems in Europe to allegedly take out North Korean and Iranian intercontinental missiles. The missile defense missiles could possibly be armed with nuclear warheads and could probably be used in a surface-to-surface mode. (Previously deployed US Nike-Hercules air defense missiles had such capabilities.)
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The Militarization Of The US/China Trade War

Tuesday October 2, 2018

Over just the past two weeks we have seen numerous points of conflict between the US and China, including new US sanctions on China, a skirmish in the South China Sea, new tariffs, Trump's claim that China is interfering in the US election, and more. Is the heating up of the trade war with China also translating to a heating up of military tensions? Does the Trump Administration understand where this may be going? Tune in to today's Liberty Report...
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