As Brown Noses points out on Twitter, it appears as if US aid has arrived to Syria, courtesy of USAID. Isn't it nice to see that the money extorted from Americans and sent to "moderates" in Syria is being put to use building shelters for al-Qaeda and their US-supplied anti-tank rockets read on...
No wonder President Barack Obama has cloaked in secrecy his administration’s justifications for ordering “targeted killings,” including through the use of drones. Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald report in First Look’s "The Intercept" today that kill orders in the drones program are based on National Security Agency electronic surveillance analysis that is inherently misleading, easily foiled by targeted individuals, and necessarily causes the death and injury of unidentified, non-targeted people.
This shoddy kill order process is far from what people would reasonably think Obama was promising when he said in his January 28 State of the Union speech that, “I’ve imposed prudent limits on the use of drones.” In contrast to that promise, Scahill and Greenwald report a former drone operator’s conclusion that, “the drone program amounts to little more than death by unreliable metadata.” read on...
Violent protestors last month occupied three cabinet ministry buildings as they sought to overthrow the Ukrainian government. Protestors physically blocked the speaker of the Ukrainian parliament from taking his seat at the speaker's podium for weeks. Then they blockaded the speaker of parliament in his own office, forcing him to escape out the window.
As the Ukrainian authorities attempted to restore order and evict protestors from government buildings, the US government threatened sanctions and more if the legally-elected government of Ukraine moved against those occupying government buildings. read on...
Like the George W. Bush Administration before it that sought to use secret legal memoranda to legitimize heinous treatment of prisoners, the Obama Administration appears to be using questionable and secret legal memoranda in an attempt to justify expanded presidential powers, including the power to use drones for “targeted killings.”
Judge Andrew Napolitano, talking this week with host Megyn Kelly on Fox News, explains how the Obama administration is employing this tactic: read on...
US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt were caught in a phone conversation leaked yesterday actively plotting over which of the Ukrainian opposition figures should take which position in a post-coup Ukraine government. In the call, they were furious that the EU was not as quick to move from words to action as the US, and decided to bring in the UN to "glue" the "deal" together instead.
This is a scandal of major international proportions, and the implications of this clear evidence of direct US involvement in civil unrest in Ukraine are much more serious than most in the US and EU realize. As is to be expected, however, the US mainstream press is focused not on this evidence of extreme US recklessness and deception, but rather on whether the Russians leaked the call or not. They are ignoring the real core of the scandal to focus on salacious aspects, real or imagined. read on...
Thanks to PartisanGirl on Twitter for pointing out that a recent profile of the "moderate" Free Syria Army on the website of the Atlantic Monthly, lamenting the diappearance of "Syria’s non-violent activists" from social media, included a picture of featured "moderate" Syrian oppositionists dressed in al-Qaeda t-shirts and Taliban-style outfit.
So even the vaunted "moderates" — to whom the US Congress just voted in secret to once again begin supplying weapons — are dressed like Taliban and al-Qaeda. Are they just emulating their heroes or are they actually members of these groups? Is no one expected to notice? Is not the State Department and intelligence community paid in the billions to notice such things? Or are they lying to us too, as is the media? read on...
Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC), an RPI Advisory Board Member, delivers hard-hitting questions and comments during a House Armed Services hearing this week on the "State of Al Qaeda, its Affiliates, and Associated Groups: View From Outside Experts." On the continuing controversy over the US/Afghanistan status of forces treaty and the prospect of ten more years of spending money in Afghanistan, Rep. Jones has this to say: read on...
US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul has announced today that he will step down from his post in Moscow and will leave the Obama Administration entirely. He stated that he wants to spend more time with his family.
McFaul leaves behind a legacy of damaged US/Russia relations due in no small part to his blundering, undiplomatic diplomacy. The week of his arrival in Moscow, as an opposition unable to win at the ballot box had taken to the street in attempt to change the electoral result, McFaul met extensively with opposition leaders, raising suspicions that he had been sent to help foment a "color revolution" in Russia. read on...
Iraqi army forces intensified their shelling of Fallujah over the past couple of days in attempt to dislodge control from an al-Qaeda affiliate that last month overran the city and most of the Anbar region in which it lies.
US Secretary of State John Kerry pledged support to Iraq in its efforts to expel al-Qaeda from Fallujah and Anbar, promising the US would do "everything that is possible" to help the Maliki government take on al-Qaeda in Iraq. The US has already sent at least 75 "Hellfire" missiles and promised to send in drones as well. read on...
The warmongers clearly have been seeding the press and politics in order to get their war against Syria. This began by planting a propaganda report that Syria was not complying with the timetable for removing chemical weapons. Then it went on to planting a report with renewed accusations of Syrian torture. read on...
