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Operation Voldemort: The War Which Must Not Be Named

There is an interesting dimension to the ongoing circumvention of the Constitution over our latest undeclared war. While some Administration officials are finally calling our attacks in Syria as a “war,” the discomfort over defining this indefinite campaign has led to equal discomfort over naming it. After two months of airstrikes and statements that the campaign will likely go on for years, the Administration still have not named this war. The choice would now seem obvious: Operation Voldemort, the war which must not be named.

Usually, the military loves to give inspiring names to its campaigns, though sometimes the name can reveal a bit of insecurity like “Operation Just Cause” in Panama — a name that only seemed to amplify the questions of the legality or legitimacy of the invasion. Once coined, the name then appears on everything from government contracts to legislation to service medals.
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Libya Up Next (Again) On Obama's 'Bomb the World' Tour?

While the media tends to tread lightly on the subject (they were, after all, war cheerleaders), it is nevertheless widely known that President Obama's war on Libya to spread democracy and save the Libyan people from a dictator did not quite turn out as advertised. 

On March 28, 2011, the president announced of his attack on Libya:
We are succeeding in our mission... Because we acted quickly a humanitarian catastrophe has been avoided and the lives of countless civilians...have been saved.
Fast forward just a bit and it is obvious that his confidence in the righteousness of his bombing mission is misplaced. Shortly after the president proclaimed "Mission Accomplished" in Libya, the radical Islamists with which his administration had allied to overthrow Gaddafi gained the upper hand and began to unleash a whole new kind of terror on the Libyan people. And, famously, on US diplomats as well.
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'Comply Or Die’ is Not The Law

In 1975, as the elected sheriff of Utah’s Davis County, William "Dub" Lawrence helped organize one of the state’s first SWAT teams. On September 22, 2008, his son-in-law, Brian Wood, was killed by that SWAT team outside his home following a 12-hour standoff.

After suffering a breakdown of some kind, Wood called 911 to report (falsely) that he had beaten and raped his wife. SWAT operators used chemical weapons to force Wood from the pickup truck in which he had taken refuge, then treated him to a barrage of rubber bullets, projectile bean bags, and pepper-spray rounds, in addition to tear gas and flash-bang grenades. While Wood was prone and helpless, he was shot with a Taser at least eight times by one officer, and an unknown number of times by a second — before being shot at point-blank range by another officer wielding a .308-caliber rifle.
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Surveying the Empire: RPI's Daniel McAdams on the Robert Wenzel Show

Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, ISIS, Hong Kong — why is the US at war with much of the rest of the world? Why does the government lie to trick so many Americans into backing their impoverishing and dangerous plans? Who is behind this warmongering and why?

RPI Director Daniel McAdams is on the Robert Wenzel Show at the Economic Policy Journal today to survey the expanse of the US empire.
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Israel Lobby Supports Jabhat Al-Nusra, Insurgents In Aleppo Surrounded

Israel gives cover and opened a corridor for Jabhat al-Nusra along the Golan height demarcation line to reach south Lebanon and the southern approaches to Damascus.

There seems to be no concern in Tel Aviv that one day Jabhat al-Nusra could turn against Israel too. That is somewhat astonishing as both Hizbullah and Hamas started with Israeli support as counterweights to the Palestinian Liberation Organization only to later become the most capable foes of the Israeli occupation forces. One might have thought that Israeli strategists had learned from such foolishness.
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Ron Paul: Republican Majority in US Senate Would Not Make Much Difference

While Washington, DC politicians and pundits are prattling about whether the Democrats or Republicans will control the United States Senate after the November election, Ron Paul is throwing cold water on the whole brouhaha. Paul, speaking Wednesday on the Alan Colmes Show, explains that, “generally speaking, it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference” which party controls the Senate.
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Ron Paul: Technology for Liberty, Not War

RPI Chairman and Founder Ron Paul, in a wide-ranging Alex Jones Show interview on Tuesday, commented on the potential of technology to counter “the abusive state.” Noting that government will always use technology for war and against the people, Paul says that in response “we have to try to get the smart people on our side to make sure the technology protects our liberty.”
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The Empire on the Warpath -- McAdams and Taylor on Syria, Hong Kong, and More

RPI Director Daniel McAdams is back with Jay Taylor to have a closer look into the topics the mainstream media refuses to cover. Mass graves in part of Ukraine occupied by US-backed regime? Radio silence in the west. US involvement in Hong Kong color revolution? Don't even go there! Listen to McAdams and Taylor for all the news the mainstream does not want you to hear...
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Does Obama's 'Pivot to Asia' Include Regime Change For China?

President Barack Obama's "pivot to Asia" was supposed to mean that the US would pull back from its commitments in the Middle East and Europe and focus on improving economic and other ties with East Asia. Instead, the US government has helped foment a coup against an elected president in Ukraine, sparking a bloody civil war in the country; ignited a new cold war with Russia, including the imposition of broad economic sanctions; and launched yet another war in the Middle East, this time attacking both Iraqi and Syrian territory. 

Fallout from the administration's turn against Russia (ostensibly in retaliation for what Washington insists is a strong Russian hand in eastern Ukraine's fight for independence from post-coup Kiev), includes a significant warming of relations between Russia and China and a soaring level of trade between the two countries in Chinese currency, the yuan, instead of the dollar. The result may well be a US own-goal, with the dollar as the global reserve currency soon a faded memory.
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Hilarious German Satire of Anti-Russian Propaganda

While the German media has been at least as propagandistic as the US/UK media in its resurrection of wild, Cold War-style rhetoric over the Ukraine situation, cracks are beginning to appear. Satire, humor, and ridicule have always been among the best forms of social critique, and the below clip lampooning the information war over Ukraine is among the very best. When people laugh at their government's propaganda, truth begins to break through. It was true with the Soviet Union and it is true today in the west. Watch and enjoy...
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