US, UK Diabolic Lie: Syria Used Chemical Arms by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
April 27, 2013

Image by Leo Reynolds via Flickr

You have to admit it. The Americans and British do make a formidable double-act – of deception and criminality. Where one party has the firepower, the other has the liar-power.

The diabolic duo is at it again. This time the criminal magic show is to sell the lie to the world that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons of mass destruction. Weeks of political choreography have set up the issue of chemical weapons as a convenient “red line”.

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.

In the Arms of Dictators: America the Great… Global Arms Dealer by Andrew Gavin Marshall

Image by U.S. Missile Defense Agency via Flickr

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Writer, Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
March 26, 2013

The following is a first draft sample from a chapter currently being written for The People’s Book Project. Read more about The People’s Book Project here, and please consider donating to help the Project continue.

The American imperial system incorporates much more than supporting the occasional coup or undertaking the occasional war. Coups, wars, assassinations and other forms of overt and covert violence and destabilization, while relatively common and consistent for the United States – compared to other major powers – are secondary to the general maintenance of a system of imperial patronage.

Dahr Jamail Returns to Iraq to Find Rampant Torture and a Failed State Living in “Utter Devastation” + Epidemic of Birth Defects, Cancers

Dandelion Salad

Image by mugley via Flickr

democracynow·Mar 20, 2013

www.democracynow.org/ - Investigative journalist Dahr Jamail reported for Democracy Now! throughout the early stages of the U.S. invasion of Iraq 10 years ago. Now with Al Jazeera, Jamail has just returned from Iraq once again, finding what he calls a “failed state” living in “utter devastation.” In part one of our interview, Jamail discusses the harrowing security situation for Iraqis living in fear of bombings, executions, and kidnappings, the widespread torture in Iraq’s prisons, and the breakdown of security in what he calls a “a lawless state.”

Barack Obama’s Executive Order — Export Control Reform

Dandelion Salad

Propaganda Alert!

Image by SS&SS via Flickr

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
March 8, 2013

Fact Sheet: Implementation of Export Control Reform

Today, the Administration announced two key steps to further the goals of President Obama’s Export Control Reform Initiative, which is a common sense approach to overhauling the nation’s export control system.  President Obama signed an Executive Order today to update delegated presidential authorities over the administration of certain export and import controls under the Arms Export Control Act of 1976,

Anne-Marie O’Reilly (Campaign Against Arms Trade): The Devastating Impact of UK Weapons Sales (+ transcript)

Dandelion Salad

Image by Fibonacci Blue via Flickr

by Anne-Marie O’Reilly
Right Livelihood Award Foundation Archive
www.rightlivelihood.org
7 December 2012

Mister Deputy Speaker,
Honourable Members of Parliament,
Your excellencies,
Fellow laureates,
Dear friends,

Thank you

It is a great honour to accept the Right Livelihood Award on behalf of Campaign Against Arms Trade. The Award is a valued tribute to the work of thousands of people in the UK, whose collective action has managed to expose, challenge and impede the arms trade since we began our work nearly 40 years ago.

Five Invasion Plots, Three Continents, Identical Lies by Felicity Arbuthnot

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
London, England
December 22, 2012

Image by Leo Reynolds via Flickr

I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. We have definitely adopted the position at the Peace Conference of arguing in favour of the retention of gas as a permanent method of warfare…. I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. — Winston S. Churchill, 1874-1965, from War Office  minute,  May 12, 1919

As the sabre rattling against Syria gets ever louder, the allegations ever wilder and double standards, stirring, plotting and terrorist financing (sorry, “aiding the legitimate opposition”) neon lit, it is instructive to look at the justifications presented by US Administrations for a few other murderous incursions in recent history.

Franklin Lamb: US-led nasty alliance behind Syria unrest

by Franklin Lamb
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Beirut, Lebanon
June 22, 2012

Jun 22, 2012 by PressTVGlobalNews

US media has confirmed finally that the CIA is helping armed gangs in Syria, operating out of Turkey with weapons smuggled through Turkey.

Saudi Arabia: Persian Gulf Of Strategic Interest To NATO by Rick Rozoff

by Rick Rozoff
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
June 20, 2012

On June 18 Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen met with Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Nizar Madani at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

The head of the Western military alliance extended an invitation to the Persian Gulf kingdom to join NATO’s partnership program in the region, stating “Saudi Arabia is a key player in the region and NATO would welcome the opportunity to engage the Kingdom’s government as a partner in the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative.”

British Monarch Celebrates Coronation Jubilee with Gulf Despots and Dictators + US resuming arms supply to Bahrain

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
East Africa
May 18, 2012

Queen of United Kingdom (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When Queen Elizabeth II receives her guests at Windsor Castle today to celebrate 60 years as head of the British state she will be greeted and fawned upon by some of the world’s most ruthless dictators.

Some 40 sovereigns from around the world are invited to the celebratory lunch to mark the queen’s Diamond Jubilee, six decades after she accessed the British throne in 1952.

A spokesman for Britain’s House of Windsor said the occasion would be an historic and intimate gathering of crowned heads. Among the attendees will be the queen’s counterparts from other European royal households, including sovereigns from Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands and Norway.

Three significant and inter-related developments for America’s war plans for full spectrum dominance by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
East Africa
May 16, 2012

Image by World Can’t Wait via Flickr

America’s war plans for full spectrum dominance in the oil-rich Middle East and Central Asian region shifted up a gear this week with three significant and inter-related developments.

Forget about viewing events in countries as separate incidents. Syria, Iran and the Gulf monarchies are closely bound up in US-led war plans in the Middle East that are aimed at projecting American political, economic and military power across this vital region and beyond.

The Lutfallah II Arms-Smuggling Scandal by Franklin Lamb

by Franklin Lamb
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Tripoli, Lebanon
May 5, 2012

It would be an incautious stretch to suggest any sort of parity between Watergate and the unfolding Lutfallah II arms shipment-to-Syria drama, that each day brings more revelations. But some of what we are daily learning about the who, what and why of Lutfallah II reminds some of us of a Watergate, type atmosphere including  “bit by bit, drip by drip” revelations,  denials, setting up fall guys and remarkable examples of incompetence.

Rick Rozoff: U.S.-NATO Missile System: Russia’s Nuclear Forces In Danger?

by Rick Rozoff
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
Stop NATO-Opposition to global militarism
March 23, 2012

Voice of Russia
March 23, 2012

Russia’s nuclear forces in danger?
John Robles

Interview with Rick Rozoff
AUDIO: Download

What do you think will be some of the evidence that Ministry of Defense will present very soon proving the ABM-4 shield as a danger to Russia’s nuclear forces?

How Many Violations of US Arms Laws are Too Many? by Franklin Lamb

by Franklin Lamb
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Beirut, Lebanon
March 18, 2012

On March 6, 2012, the US Congressional Research Service released a report to the US Congress concerning Restrictions on the use of American weapons by recipient countries. For those who have followed the subject there was not a whole lot new in the CRS study, yet it is instructive in identifying Israel once again as far and away the most  egregious violator of virtually every provision of every US law which purports to regulate how American weapons are used.