Collapse of the Old Oil Order

SUBHEAD: Consider the recent rise in the price of oil just a faint and early tremor heralding the oilquake to come.By Michael T. Klare on 3 March 2011 in TomDispatch - (http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175362/tomgram%3A_michael_klare%2C_oilquake_in_the_middle_east)Image above: Awbari lakes in Fezzan, Libya. From (http://landsgenre.webs.com/thecosmiclandscape.htm).Whatever the outcome of the

An Empire of Lies

SUBHEAD: We must demand more of our corporate media and we must desert them, as is already happening, for better sources of information.By Jonathan Cook on 28 February 2011 in Information Clearing House - (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27583.htm)Image above: Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, a.k.a. "Curveball" now lives in Karlsruhe, Germany. From (http://www.bollyn.com/

WikiLeaks Iraq Diary Videos

SUBHEAD: British TV Channel Four current affairs show "Dispatches" presents study of Wikileaks US military Iraq diaries.Image above: Julian Assange at press conference was photographed by Leon Neal for Getty Images.By AdamW11 on 25 October 2010 on Youtube -(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=METSuKyY-t4)[Editor's note: We have compiled videos on the subject of the WikiLeaks Iraq Diary from the BBC

The War On Terror

The War On Terror

by Paul Craig Roberts, October 16, 2010

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Does anyone remember the "cakewalk war" that would last six weeks, cost $50-$60 billion, and be paid for out of Iraqi oil revenues?  

 (Nov. 15, 2002, CBS: ...Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld...rejected concerns that a war would be a quagmire. "... it's [not] going to be a long, long, long battle of some kind... Five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that..." )

Does anyone remember that White House economist Lawrence Lindsey was fired by Dubya because Lindsey estimated that the Iraq war could cost as much as $200 billion?  Lindsey was fired for over-estimating the cost of a war that, according to Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, has cost 15 times more than Lindsey estimated. And the US still has 50,000 troops in Iraq.  Does anyone remember that just prior to the US invasion of Iraq, the US government declared victory over the Taliban in Afghanistan? Does anyone remember that the reason Dubya gave for invading Iraq was Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, weapons that the US government knew did not exist? Are Americans aware that the same neoconservatives who made these fantastic mistakes, or told these fabulous lies, are still in control of the government in Washington?

The "war on terror" is now in its tenth year.  What is it really all about?

The bottom line answer is that the "war on terror" is about creating real terrorists. The US government desperately needs real terrorists in order to justify its expansion of its wars against Muslim countries and to keep the American people sufficiently fearful that they continue to accept the police state that provides "security from terrorists," but not from the government that has discarded civil liberties. 

The US government creates terrorists by invading Muslim countries, wrecking  infrastructure and killing vast numbers of civilians. The US also creates terrorists by installing puppet governments to rule over Muslims and by using the puppet governments to murder and persecute citizens as is occurring on a vast scale in Pakistan today.

Neoconservatives used 9/11 to launch their plan for US world hegemony. Their plan fit with the interests of America’s ruling oligarchies. Wars are good for the profits of the military/security complex, about which President Eisenhower warned us in vain a half century ago.  American hegemony is good for the oil industry’s control over resources and resource flows. The transformation of the Middle East into a vast American puppet state serves well the Israel Lobby’s Zionist aspirations for Israeli territorial expansion.

Most Americans cannot see what is happening because of their conditioning.  Most Americans believe that their government is the best on earth, that it is morally motivated to help others and to do good, that it rushes aid to countries where there is famine and natural catastrophes. Most believe that their presidents tell the truth, except about their sexual affairs.

President Manuel Zelaya

The persistence of these delusions is extraordinary in the face of daily headlines that report US government bullying of, and interference with, virtually every country on earth. The US policy is to buy off, overthrow, or make war on leaders of other countries who represent their peoples’ interests instead of American interests. A recent victim was the president of Honduras who had the wild idea that the Honduran government should serve the Honduran people.

The American government was able to have the Honduran president discarded, because the Honduran military is trained and supplied by the US military. It is the same case in Pakistan, where the US government has the Pakistani government making war on its own people by invading tribal areas that the Americans consider to be friendly to the Taliban, al-Qaeda, "militants" and "terrorists." 

Earlier this year a deputy US Treasury secretary ordered Pakistan to raise taxes so that the Pakistani government could more effectively make war on its own citizens for the Americans. On October 14 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered Pakistan to again raise taxes or the US would withhold flood aid. Clinton pressured America’s European puppet states to do the same, expressing in the same breath that the US government was worried by British cuts in the military budget. God forbid that the hard-pressed British, still reeling from American financial fraud, don’t allocate enough money to fight America’s wars.

On Washington’s orders, the Pakistani government launched a military offensive against Pakistani citizens in the Swat Valley that killed large numbers of Pakistanis and drove millions of civilians from their homes. Last July the US instructed Pakistan to send its troops against the Pakistani residents of North Waziristan. On July 6, Jason Ditz reported on Antiwar.com that "at America’s behest, Pakistan has launched offensives against [the Pakistani provinces of] Swat Valley, Bajaur, South Waziristan, Orakzai, and Khyber."

A week later Israel’s US Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) called for escalating the Obama Administration’s policies of US airstrikes against Pakistan’s tribal areas. On September 30, the Pakistani newspaper, The Frontier Post, wrote that the American air strikes "are, plain and simple, a naked aggression against Pakistan." 

The US claims that its forces in Afghanistan have the right to cross into Pakistan in pursuit of "militants." Recently US helicopter gunships killed three Pakistani soldiers whom they mistook for Taliban.  Pakistan closed the main US supply route to Afghanistan until the Americans apologized.

Pakistan warned Washington against future attacks. However, US military officials, under pressure from Obama to show progress in the endless Afghan war, responded to Pakistan’s warning by calling for expanding the Afghan war into Pakistan.  On October 5 the Canadian journalist Eric Margolis wrote that "the US edges closer to invading Pakistan."

In his book, Obama’s Wars, Bob Woodward reports that America’s puppet president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, believes that terrorist bombing attacks inside Pakistan for which the Taliban are blamed are in fact CIA operations designed to destabilize Pakistan and allow Washington to seize Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. 

Obama's Wars, by Bob Woodward

To keep Pakistan in line, the US government changed its position that the "Times Square Bombing" was the work of a "lone wolf." Attorney General Eric Holder switched the blame to the "Pakistani Taliban," and Secretary of State Clinton threatened Pakistan with "very serious consequences" for the unsuccessful Times Square bombing, which likely was a false flag operation aimed at Pakistan.

To further heighten tensions, on September 1 the eight members of a high-ranking Pakistani military delegation en route to a meeting in Tampa, Florida, with US Central Command, were rudely treated and detained as terrorist suspects at Washington DC’s Dulles Airport. 

For decades the US government has enabled repeated Israeli military aggression against Lebanon and now appears to be getting into gear for another Israeli assault on the former American protectorate. On October 14 the US government expressed its "outrage" that the Lebanese government had permitted a visit by Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who is the focus of Washington’s intense demonization efforts. Israel’s representatives in the US Congress threatened to stop US military aid to Lebanon, forgetting that US Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) has had aid to Lebanon blocked since last August to punish Lebanon for a border clash with Israel. 

Perhaps the most telling headline of all is the October 14 report, "Somalia’s New American Prime Minister." An American has been installed as the Prime Minister of Somalia, an American puppet government in Mogadishu backed up by thousands of Ugandan troops paid by Washington.

This barely scratches the surface of Washington’s benevolence toward other countries and respect for their rights, borders, and lives of their citizens. 

Meanwhile, to silence the whistleblower website WikiLeaks and to prevent any more revelations of American war crimes, the "freedom and democracy" government in DC has closed down WikiLeaks’ donations by placing the company that collects its money on its "watch list" and by having the Australian puppet government blacklist WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks is now akin to a terrorist organization. The American government’s practice of silencing critics will spread across the Internet.

Remember, they hate us because we have freedom and democracy, First Amendment rights, habeas corpus, respect for human rights, and show justice and mercy to all.

Read more by Paul Craig Roberts

·         It Is Official: The US Is A Police State – September 24th, 2010

·         The True Cost of the War – September 2nd, 2010

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Wikileaks Iraq War Diaries

SUBHEAD: Wikileaks releases almost 400,000 pages of military reports on Iraq War.Image above: Photo of Julian Assange, founder of Wkileaks.org. From (http://www.overoll.com/Content/WikiLeaks-founders-rape-case-dropped-/2010/8/28/322436.news).Press release on 22 October 2010 by Wikileaks.org - (http://warlogs.wikileaks.org)At 5pm EST Friday 22nd October 2010 WikiLeaks released the largest

"Debunking the 'War on Terror'": Symposium Videos

An international symposium, “Debunking the ‘War on Terror’”, occurred in London, UK, on Wednesday, 14 July 2010. This featured James Fetzer, Scholars for 9/11 Truth, Kevin Barrett, Muslims for 9/11 Truth, and Gilad Atzmon, political commentator. The speakers focused on the false rationales that have been advanced to promote the “war on terror”, including distortions of the events of 9/11, appealing to religious and cultural differences, and loading language to achieve a predetermined political effect. They provided three perspectives for debunking the “war on terror”.

BELOW ARE THE VIDEO ARCHIVES OF EACH SPEAKER.

James Fetzer 7-14-10 London part 1 from No Lies Radio on Vimeo.

JamesFetzer_7-14-10_London_part 2 from No Lies Radio on Vimeo.

London Symposium on 9-11. Part Two: Dr Kevin Barrett from pentos films on Vimeo.

London Symposium on 9-11. Part Three: Gilad Atzmon from pentos films on Vimeo.

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Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Muslims for 9/11 Truth Initiative

[FROM religionandmorality.net]

Scholars for 9/11 Truth, in association with Muslims for 9/11 Truth, will host an international symposium, “Debunking ‘The War on Terror’”, which will be addressed from three points of view. The events of 9/11 solved strategic problems for policymakers in Washington and other Western capitals by enabling the execution of plans by the Bush White House for a massive expansion of the US military and the invasion of Iraq and by neutralizing domestic problems threatening an already unpopular president. The Bush administration has exploited religious and cultural differences between the US and the Middle East to secure public support for a “war on terror” by tacitly pitting Christianity against Islam. The speakers will expose the false rationales that have been advanced in support of these illegal and immoral wars.

Dr. James Fetzer, who is Distinguished McKnight Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota Duluth, is the founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, a non-partisan association of faculty, students, and scholars, in fields as diverse as history, science, military affairs, psychology, and philosophy, dedicated to exposing falsehoods and to revealing truths behind 9/11. Scholars was the first 9/11 research society to make an impact on public discussion about the events of 9/11. The Scholars’ first book, The 9/11 Conspiracy (2007) and DVD, The Science and Politics of 9/11 (2007), provide evidence of a conspiracy and cover-up, which was designed and executed to manipulate the American people into supporting illegal wars and unConstitutional measures out of the fear those atrocities induced. He will address, “Are wars in Iraq and Afghanistan justified by 9/11?”

Dr. Kevin Barrett, a Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist, is the co-founder and acting coordinator of Muslims for 9/11 Truth. He is one of America’s best-known critics of the War on Terror. The co-founders of Muslims for 9/11 Truth, Dr. Kevin Barrett and Dr. A.K. Dewdney are currently working in a project to urgently warn the world’s Muslims that it is time to stand up for 9/11 truth and expose the “war on terror” as a hoax. They are distributing thousands of copies of their letter “Warning of a Global War on Islam” to mosques and Islamic organisations worldwide. Dr. Barrett is the author of Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle Against the 9/11 Big Lie (2007) and of Questioning the War on Terror (2009) as well as the lead editor (with theologian John Cobb and Jewish Studies professor Sandra Lubarsky) of 9/11 & American Empire Vol. II: Christians, Jews, and Muslims Speak Out (2007; Arabic version 2009). He will address, “Islam, Neoconservatism, and the Unwarranted ‘War on Terror’”.

Gilad Atzmon is an outspoken opponent of Zionism and highly critical voice of Jewish identity politics. An Israeli-born British jazz saxophonist, his album “Exile” was the BBC’s “jazz album of the year” in 2003. Gilad Atzmon’s writings have been published in CounterPunch, Al Jazeera, Uruknet, and Middle East Online. His albums, of which he has recorded nine to date, often explore political themes and the music of the Middle East. He has published at least two comic novels, which have been translated into 24 languages. Gilad will offer his reflections on the nature of state terrorism and analyze the political significance of the language that has been used to promote the “war on terror”. His presentation is entitled, “From Promised Land to Promised Planet: Zionism and Neoconservatism”.

Kenneth O’Keefe, our Master of Ceremonies, was a human shield in Iraq who formally renounced his US citizenship in protest in 2001; he now has Irish as well as Palestinian citizenship. On the morning of the Mavi Marmara attack, as he describes it, he was “directly involved in the disarming of two Israeli Commandos. This was a forcible, non-negotiable, separation of weapons from commandos who had already murdered two brothers that I had seen that day.” Subsequently brutalised by the Israeli military, he is defiant: “I challenge any critic of merit, publicly, to debate me on a large stage over our actions that day. I would especially love to debate with any Israeli leader who accuses us of wrongdoing, it would be my tremendous pleasure to face off with you. All I saw in Israel was cowards with guns, so I am ripe to see you in a new context.”

READ FULL STORY HERE

The Israel Lobby. For many years now the American foreign policy has been characterized by the strong tie between the United States and Israel. Does the United States in fact keep Israel on its feet? And how long will it continue to do so?