International affairs writer Eric Margolis, interviewed Wednesday on the Scott Horton Show, commented that he would not be surprised if the killers of Canada soldiers in Ontario and Quebec this week were motivated to react to the Canada government’s adoption of “a very, very hostile policy toward Muslims in general.” Margolis pins the responsibility for the adoption of this policy largely on Stephen Harper, who has been the nation’s prime minister since February of 2006, and some of the groups supporting Harper.
Margolis points to particular aspects of this policy, including that Canada “just dispatched six warplanes to go and bomb ISIS or whoever in Syria and Iraq” and has spent billions of dollars and over 100 troops’ lives on the Afghanistan war and occupation. Margolis, a Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity academic board member, sums up the dramatic transition toward Canada becoming a target for blowback as follows...
The US government has demonstrated with its No Fly and Selectee Lists, in operation for over a decade, how to deny respect for tens of thousands of individuals’ travel and privacy rights without even the slightest nod to due process protections. Over the last 19 months, the New York government has followed a similar course, using a new “No Guns List” to deny respect for tens of thousands of individuals’ right to keep and bear arms.
New York Times writer Anemona Hartocollis explains in a Sunday Times article that New York state’s 2013 gun control law the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Act is facilitating the prohibition of gun ownership and possession for many New Yorkers by compelling physicians, psychologists, registered nurses, and licensed clinical social workers to report to the government the identities of any patients they think are "likely to engage in conduct that would result in serious harm to self or others."
Again RPI's Daniel McAdams looks at the news of the week on the Jay Taylor Show. This week Jay and Daniel look at Rep. Walter Jones and US troops in harm's way in Ebolaland, the new German intelligence claim to know who shot down the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over east Ukraine, NATO's claims that Russia is on NATO's doorstep when it was NATO expansion that has moved to Russia's border, ISIS, and more....
The New York Times reports that the Obama Administration is considering a return to the Bush-era interpretation of the UN Convention Against Torture, which is that it does not apply to torture conducted outside US borders. This would mean that those conducting what would be considered torture in the US would not be legally liable for such actions in CIA facilities or US military prisons overseas.
According to the Times, State Department lawyers are urging that the president drop the Bush-era position, while lawyers from the military and intelligence community are concerned that the folks tortured could turn and sue those US officials involved should the US view be officially changed.
That is the claim of the head of German intelligence, the BND, writes German newsmagazine Der Spiegel over the weekend. On RT, RPI's Daniel McAdams remains skeptical of these supposed German claims and criticizes the secrecy and lack of transparency in the investigation...
Sometimes it takes a while for the PR folks to come up with a branding scheme for another US war.
In the recent past, we had Desert Shield, which gave way to Desert Storm, when the US first attacked Iraq in 1990. Very exciting, like a storm in the desert. Then came "Operation Iraqi Freedom." A little less dramatic but it got the point across: "we come to give you freedom whether you want it or not." As it turned out, there was little real freedom produced by Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Now, two months after the US began bombing Iraq again -- and now Syria as well -- Pentagon branders have agreed on a name for President Obama's determination to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (or Islamic State, or ISIL, or whatever you want to call it).
The name: "Operation Inherent Resolve."
