Cannibalizing Syria: The West to Blame by Finian Cunningham

Warning

This article may contain language depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be read by a mature audience.

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
May 15, 2013

The latest shocking video to emerge from Syria – showing a militant commander carving out the internal organs of a dead regime soldier and proceeding to eat them in front of the camera – has prompted a telling reaction from the Western corporate-controlled news media.

Cornel West: Obama is a War Criminal + Julian Assange: What Makes Us Civil is Education

Image by Abode of Chaos via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

ignoredvoices on May 9, 2013

Influential philosopher and historian West is disappointed with Obama.

Rule Britannia for Global Crimes by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
May 8, 2013

It’s an anthem that is usually sung with chest-thumping pride and misty eyes by British imperialists. “Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves”. This jingoistic celebration of Britain’s former global conquest may yet degenerate into “Rue Britannia, Britannia rues the waves”.

This is because, as The Guardian newspaper reports this week, the London government has at long last been forced into recognizing compensation payments for as many as 50,000 Kenyan nationals who were victims of torture and other crimes against humanity during that country’s independence struggle in the 1950s. The eventual bill for compensation could run up to tens of millions of pounds.

Dance on Thatcher’s Grave, but Remember, There Has Been a Coup in Britain by John Pilger

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by John Pilger
http://johnpilger.com
25 April 2013

Image by gnatlou93 via Flickr

In the wake of Thatcher’s departure, I remember her victims. Patrick Warby’s daughter, Marie, was one of them. Marie, aged five, suffered from a bowel deformity and needed a special diet. Without it, the pain was excruciating. Her father was a Durham miner and had used all his savings. It was winter 1985, the Great Strike was almost a year old and the family was destitute. Although her eligibility was not disputed, Marie was denied help by the Department of Social Security. Later, I obtained records of the case that showed Marie had been turned down because her father was “affected by a Trade dispute”.

Barack Obama Is Comfortable with Bush’s Inferno by Ralph Nader + ABA White Papers

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Image by World Can’t Wait via Flickr

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
April 19, 2013

George W. Bush is riding high. A megamillionaire, from the taxpayer-subsidized Texas Rangers company, he makes $150,000 to $200,000 per speech, receives a large presidential pension and support facilities and is about to dedicate the $500 million George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on April 25.

Thatcher Gets Funeral Fit For A Dictator by Finian Cunningham + Thatcher’s Coffin Booed At Her Funeral

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
April 17, 2013

Image by The PIX-JOCKEY (photo manipulation) via Flickr

The funeral for former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher takes place today in London with full military honors. Not since Sir Winston Churchill, the famous Second World War leader, has the British state bestowed such an honor on a deceased prime minister.

British monarch Queen Elizabeth II will attend the funeral service at St Paul’s Cathedral for Thatcher, who died last week at the age of 87. The last time the head of the British state attended such an occasion was nearly 60 years ago, in 1965, for the funeral of Churchill. On that occasion, the British public was largely supportive of the farewell ceremony, as Winston Churchill was seen as the redoubtable leader of a national unity government during a period of great crisis.

Two Obamas, Two Classes of Children by Ralph Nader

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by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
April 11, 2013

Image by watchingfrogsboil via Flickr

An Associated Press photograph brought the horror of little children lying dead outside of their home to an American Audience. At least 10 Afghan children and some of their mothers were struck down by an airstrike on their extended family household by order of President Barack Obama. He probably decided on what his aides describe as the routine weekly “Terror Tuesday” at the White House. On that day, Mr. Obama typically receives the advice about which “militants” should live or die thousands of miles away from drones or aircraft. Even if households far from war zones are often destroyed in clear violation of the laws of war, the president is not deterred.

Requiem for a Dominatrix by Michael Parenti

Image by Tim F Bklyn via Flickr

by Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Michael Parenti Blog
www.michaelparenti.org
April 13, 2013

On April 8, 2013, the western world lost a grand dame, an iconic figure, a woman admired by millions while dismissed by others as just another lady in a bouffant hairdo. She came from a modest social background yet she made her way to the top, a woman who could perform winningly in what is arguably the most competitive arena of life. I am, of course, speaking of Annette Funicello, singer and Hollywood actress.

Margaret Thatcher’s Criminal Legacy by Finian Cunningham

Image by The PIX-JOCKEY (photo manipulation) via Flickr

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
April 9, 2013

Hours after the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the history books are being re-written and the beatification of the Iron Lady is well underway.

Current British premier David Cameron praised Lady Thatcher for having “saved Britain” and for making the has-been colonial power “great again”.

Tributes poured forth from French and German leaders, Francoise Hollande and Angela Merkel, while US President Barack Obama said America had lost a “special friend”.

Deadly Raid: 11 Kids Killed in US Airstrike in Afghanistan

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Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

RussiaToday- Apr 7, 2013

At least 11 children are reported to have been among 18 people killed today in the latest airstrike by U.S. led forces in Afghanistan. The raid was allegedly called in by troops on the ground, after bitter fighting nearby. RT’s Tariq Muhi-yuddin reports.

The Hijacking of Human Rights by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
April 8, 2013

Image by flatKat via Flickr

The appointment of Suzanne Nossel, a former State Department official and longtime government apparatchik, as executive director of PEN American Center is part of a campaign to turn U.S. human rights organizations into propagandists for pre-emptive war and apologists for empire. Nossel’s appointment led me to resign from PEN as well as withdraw from speaking at the PEN World Voices Festival in May. But Nossel is only symptomatic of the widespread hijacking of human rights organizations to demonize those—especially Muslims—branded by the state as the enemy, in order to cloak pre-emptive war and empire with a fictional virtue and to effectively divert attention from our own mounting human rights abuses, including torture, warrantless wiretapping and monitoring, the denial of due process and extrajudicial assassinations.

Depleted Uranium: The BBC’s John Simpson does a hatchet job on Fallujah’s genetically damaged children by William Bowles

by William Bowles
Writer, Dandelion Salad
williambowles.info
1 April 2013

Image by NewsHour via Flickr

Under the title ‘Fallujah’s children’s ‘genetic damage’ that old war horse ‘literally’ of the BBC’s foreign propaganda service, John Simpson, manages not to mention the phrase ‘depleted uranium’ when allegedly reporting on the alarming rise in birth defects that include cancer, leukaemia and a horrific rise in child mortality since the US demolished the city of Fallujah in 2004. And it’s not until right at the end of the piece that the US attack on Fallujah is even mentioned, let alone depleted uranium!

“The Crime of the Century”: Napalm Use in Iraq by Felicity Arbuthnot

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
March 28, 2013

Image by NewsHour via Flickr

“Why should we hear about body bags and deaths … I mean, it’s not relevant, so why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that …” (Former First Lady, Barbara Bush, Good Morning America, 18th March 2003)

In these days of the tenth anniversary of the illegal invasion and near destruction of Iraq, answers are owed not alone for the dead, but to the cancer stricken, the deformed, to their parents, their siblings and all Iraqis. They were left with a land poisoned by depleted uranium in 1991, the burden ever building over twelve more years of (illegal) US and UK bombings, then the enormity of 2003.

Dr. John Johnson: US Soldiers Killed My Daughter + William Blum: The Destruction of Iraq, interviewed by Cindy Sheehan

by Cindy Sheehan
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
March 24, 2013

Image by ¡Que comunismo! via Flickr

with William Blum
Writer, Dandelion Salad
http://williamblum.org/
March 24, 2013

The US Empire’s War ON Iraq has lasted for a decade now. I am sure, I don’t have to convince supporters and fans of Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox that the US Empire’s Illegal and Immoral War on the people of Iraq was/is wrong.

The War Crime of Iraq was/is just one more notch in the bloody belt of Empire, and we must tell the stories and never give up the fight for peace: no retreat, no surrender.

The Sociocide of Iraq by Bush/Cheney by Ralph Nader

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Image by Truthout.org via Flickr

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
March 21, 2013

Ten years ago George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, as war criminals, launched the sociocide of the people of Iraq – replete with embedded television and newspaper reporters chronicling the invasion through the Bush lens. That illegal war of aggression was, of course, based on recognized lies, propaganda and cover-ups that duped or co-opted leading news institutions such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.