Cables expose US-Israeli war talks by Bill Van Auken

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

by Bill Van Auken
http://www.wsws.org
5 January 2011

US diplomatic cables quoted by the Norwegian daily newspaper Aftenposten expose discussions between US legislators and Israeli officials on preparations for the next Middle East war.

These documents make clear both Israel’s preparations for another major war in the region and the full support of visiting members of the US Congress, Democratic and Republican, who apparently subordinated themselves to the secrecy demands of the Israeli state.

Michel Chossudovsky: The Homeland Security State and the Economic Crisis

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Bonnie Faulkner
Guns and Butter
KPFA
May 26, 2010

The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the Twenty-First Century” with economist and author, Michel Chossudovsky.

Obama answers failed airline bombing with threat of new wars By Bill Van Auken

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

By Bill Van Auken
http://www.wsws.org
30 December 2009

Three days after the failed attempt by a 23-year-old Nigerian student to trigger an explosion on a Northwest Airlines passenger jet, President Barack Obama threatened to unleash US military power in Yemen and across the globe.

Obama interrupted his Hawaii vacation Monday to deliver his bellicose remarks in the face of a crescendo of Republican criticism. The Republican right has tried to exploit the abortive attack in order to indict the Democratic administration as “soft” on terrorism.

[…]

In his remarks Monday, Obama justified these actions as a means of keeping the American public “safe and secure” in the face of what he termed “a serious reminder of the dangers that we face and the nature of those who threaten our homeland.”

The reality is that the military actions being prepared by Washington will have just the opposite effect. If the statement attributed to the group Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula claiming responsibility is to be believed, the attempted airline bombing was undertaken in retaliation for the December 17 US bombing of Yemen that claimed the lives of more than 60 civilians, nearly half of them women and children.

[…]

via Obama answers failed airline bombing with threat of new wars

US ground attacks reported in Pakistan By Bill Van Auken

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

By Bill Van Auken
24 December 2009

Amid a deepening political crisis in Pakistan and growing popular unrest over US missile strikes and mercenaries, it has been revealed that over the past five years US special operations troops have conducted a number of clandestine cross-border raids into the country’s tribal areas.

These raids involved “helicopter-borne elite soldiers stealing across the border at night, and were never declared to the Pakistani government,” according to a “former NATO officer” cited in an article published Monday by the British daily Guardian.

The only publicly acknowledged incursion by US forces took place on September 3, 2008, when US Navy Seals were flown by helicopter into a village in South Waziristan, where they raided three compounds and slaughtered some 20 people. While Washington claimed those killed were Al Qaeda fighters, the Pakistani government said that the victims were all villagers and included six women and two children.

[…]

via US ground attacks reported in Pakistan.

Mercenaries and assassins: The real face of Obama’s “good war” By Bill Van Auken

Dandelion Salad

By Bill Van Auken
http://www.wsws.org
12 December 2009

Reports that mercenaries employed by the notorious Blackwater-Xe military contracting firm participated in CIA assassinations in Iraq and Afghanistan have further exposed the real character of so-called “good war” that is being escalated by the Obama administration.

Citing former employees of the firm and US intelligence agents, the New York Times reported Friday that Blackwater gunmen, ostensibly contracted as security guards, “participated in some of the CIA’s most sensitive activities—clandestine raids with agency officers against people suspected of being insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and the transporting of detainees.”

These “snatch and grab” operations—many of them involving killings of individuals suspected of participating in the resistance to US occupation—“occurred on an almost nightly basis during the height of the Iraqi insurgency from 2004 to 2006, with Blackwater employees playing central roles,” the Times reports.

[…]

via Mercenaries and assassins: The real face of Obama’s “good war”

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Blackwater, ‘CIA’s partner in secret operations’

Rachel Maddow: Obama Expands US Secret War In Pakistan!

Afghanistan on Dandelion Salad

Blackwater-Xe-Mercenaries

Obama claims right to imprison “combatants” acquitted at trial By Bill Van Auken

Dandelion Salad

By Bill Van Auken
http://www.wsws.org
10 July 2009

In testimony before the US Senate Tuesday, legal representatives of the Obama administration not only defended the system of kangaroo military tribunals set up under Bush, but affirmed the government’s right to continue imprisoning detainees indefinitely, even if they are tried and acquitted on allegations of terror-related crimes.

This assertion of sweeping, extra-constitutional powers is only the latest in a long series of decisions by the Democratic administration demonstrating its essential continuity with the Bush White House on questions of militarism and attacks on democratic rights.

[…]

via Obama claims right to imprison “combatants” acquitted at trial

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Military Commissions: Government Flounders, As Admiral Hutson Nails Problems by Andy Worthington

CIA memo cites 40 Congressional briefings on torture

Dandelion Salad

By Bill Van Auken
http://www.wsws.org
9 May 2009

A memo released Wednesday by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair lists 40 separate briefings beginning in September 2002 in which leading members of Congress were briefed by the CIA on the agency’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques”—in plain words, torture.

Before the revelations about the employment of such methods as waterboarding appeared in the media, none of these legislators, including leading Democrats, objected to or publicly protested against what amounted to war crimes.

Blair’s release of the document compiled by the CIA came in response to a request from Representative Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee. In a letter to Hoekstra, Blair stated that the memo “provides a straightforward account of the extent of interaction with the Congress on this issue.”

[…]

via CIA memo cites 40 Congressional briefings on torture.

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Obama’s First 100 Days: Mixed Messages On Torture by Andy Worthington

New Chief Prosecutor Appointed For Military Commissions At Guantánamo by Andy Worthington

Obama Returns To Bush Era On Guantánamo by Andy Worthington

Turley: Pelosi’s denials not credible

Obama’s First 100 Days: A Start On Guantánamo, But Not Enough by Andy Worthington

Israel: Netanyahu threatens war on Iran, spurns “two-state solution” By Bill Van Auken

Dandelion Salad

By Bill Van Auken
http://www.wsws.org
2 April 2009

Sworn in Tuesday as prime minister in the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, Benjamin Netanyahu threatened a military strike against Iran and signaled a break with the so-called “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict backed by Washington.

Netanyahu took office at the head of a fractious coalition after weeks of political horse-trading. The February 10 election in Israel gave Netanyahu’s Likud party one less seat in the Knesset than the Kadima party of outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni, the former foreign minister and the party’s candidate. Nonetheless, Netanyahu was tapped to form the government because Likud and other parties on the right of the Israeli political spectrum dominate the Knesset.

[…]

via Israel: Netanyahu threatens war on Iran, spurns “two-state solution”

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The Atlantic, the PresCon and Kremlinology—Did Bibi really say that? By Ron Kampeas

Netanyahu to Obama: Stop Iran—Or I Will by Jeffrey Goldberg

Iran Israel US Nukes

Kucinich: Who Told SEC to “Stand Down” on Stanford Probe? + video

Dandelion Salad

Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Washington, Feb 20, 2009

Chairman of Domestic Policy Subcommittee Opens Inquiry

Chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today sent a letter to Ms. Mary Schapiro, Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requesting documents that could reveal which government agency told the SEC to “stand down” rather than take enforcement action against the Stanford Group in October 2006 as has been reported by the New York Times.

Recent media reports have indicated that the SEC was aware of improprieties at Stanford Financial Group as early as October 2006, but withheld action at the request of another government agency. In a report published in the February 17th edition of the New York Times, an SEC official said that an inquiry had been opened on Stanford in October of 2006. According to the Times report, an associate regional director of enforcement said the SEC “stood down” on its investigation as a result of the intervention of another federal agency.

US occupation of Iraq: An ongoing criminal enterprise by Bill Van Auken

Dandelion Salad

by Bill Van Auken
http://www.wsws.org
18 February 2009

Recent media reports on the mounting evidence of wholesale corruption in US reconstruction efforts in Iraq are symptomatic of the criminal nature of Washington’s war and occupation from their inception nearly six years ago. These crimes are continuing under the Obama administration, with no end in sight.

Citing unnamed senior government officials and court documents, the New York Times reported Sunday that federal investigators have turned their sights on two senior US military officers who were in charge of contracting out reconstruction projects in Iraq in the aftermath of the March 2003 invasion.

[…]

This plan always envisioned tens of thousands of US troops staying behind to conduct counter-insurgency operations and protect US interests in the country. The generals are reportedly urging Obama to merely reclassify large numbers of those now categorized as combat troops and keep them in Iraq as well.

It is clear that, in one form or another, the war and occupation in Iraq will go on. The fight to bring it to an end and to hold accountable those responsible for this criminal venture is a struggle against the Obama administration, which requires the independent political mobilization of the working class against the profit system, which is the source of militarism and war.

via US occupation of Iraq: An ongoing criminal enterprise

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A ‘fraud’ bigger than Madoff By Patrick Cockburn

Iraq on Dandelion Salad

US intelligence chief: World capitalist crisis poses greatest threat by Bill Van Auken

Dandelion Salad

by Bill Van Auken
http://www.wsws.org
14 February 2009

In testimony before the Senate Committee on Intelligence Thursday, Washington’s new director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, warned that the deepening world capitalist crisis posed the paramount threat to US national security and warned that its continuation could trigger a return to the “violent extremism” of the 1920s and 1930s.

This frank assessment, contained in the unclassified version of the “annual threat assessment” presented by Blair on behalf of 16 separate US intelligence agencies, represented a striking departure from earlier years, in which a supposedly ubiquitous threat from Al Qaeda terrorism and the two wars launched under the Bush administration topped the list of concerns.

Clearly underlying his remarks are fears within the massive US intelligence apparatus as well as among more conscious layers of the American ruling elite that a protracted economic crisis accompanied by rising unemployment and reduced social spending will trigger a global eruption of the class struggle and the threat of social revolution.

[…]

In other words, a sharp intensification of the unfolding capitalist crisis accompanied by an eruption of class struggle and the threat of social revolution in the US itself could force the Pentagon to call back its expeditionary armies from Iraq and Afghanistan for use against American workers.

The document continues: “Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States. Further, DoD [the Department of Defense] would be, by necessity, an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance.” The phrase—”an essential enabling hub for continuity of authority”—is a euphemism for military dictatorship.

[…]

via US intelligence chief: World capitalist crisis poses greatest threat.

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Revolt is in the air by Eric Ruder

When Will We March Against Obama? by Margaret Kimberley

Obama, the military and the threat of dictatorship by Bill Van Auken

Martial Law, the Financial Bailout, and War by Prof. Peter Dale Scott

Militarization of the American Homeland: Suppression of “Civil Disturbances” by Tom Burghardt

Martial Law

Police State on Dandelion Salad

The Economy Sucks and or Collapse 2

Barack Obama on Dandelion Salad

Afghanistan: Attacks in Kabul expose US occupation’s deepening crisis + videos

Dandelion Salad

By Bill Van Auken
http://www.wsws.org
12 February 2009

Coordinated attacks by Taliban guerrillas left at least 26 dead and 57 wounded in the heart of Kabul Wednesday, while paralyzing the Afghan capital for hours. The sophisticated operation, which targeted three government buildings, underscored the mounting crisis confronting the eight-year-old US occupation of Afghanistan and the American-backed puppet regime of President Hamid Karzai.

The attacks came just days before the scheduled visit to Kabul of President Barack Obama’s special envoy, Richard Holbrooke, who is conducting what he has described as a “listening tour” that is a prelude to a major escalation of the US intervention throughout the region.

At least five guerrillas carrying Kalashnikov rifles and explosives stormed the Afghan Justice Ministry after killing two guards. They were able to take control of several floors of the government building, killing a number of officials and forcing the minister of justice and others to barricade themselves in their offices.

Meanwhile two others struck at the directorate of prisons in a Kabul suburb and an eighth attacker was killed outside the Education Ministry.

[…]

via Afghanistan: Attacks in Kabul expose US occupation’s deepening crisis.

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Taliban attacks Afghan ministry – 11 Feb 09

AlJazeeraEnglish

Taliban fighters have carried out twin attacks in the heart of Kabul.

Police sourrounded the ministry of justice complex after an armed group stormed the building.

Al Jazeera’s Todd Baer reports.

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more about “Taliban attacks Afghan ministry – 11 …“, posted with vodpod

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Security tight in kabul after suicide bombings

Obama administration defends torturers

Dandelion Salad

by Bill Van Auken
http://www.wsws.org
10 February 2009

All of the Obama administration’s rhetoric about “change you can believe in,” government transparency and democratic ideals went up in smoke Monday morning in a San Francisco federal courtroom.

A federal attorney representing President Barack Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder, rose to announce that the new administration will be standing pat on the position taken by George Bush and his Justice Department in a case involving some of the most heinous crimes of the previous administration.

Like his predecessor, Obama is invoking the state secrets privilege to quash a case brought on behalf of individuals who were abducted by the CIA, held in secrecy and without charges and transported to third countries to be interrogated under torture.

[…]

via Obama administration defends torturers.

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CIA made Rolling Stone satire into dirty bomb plot: report + How Bush Threatened Britain

Barack Obama on Dandelion Salad

Torture on Dandelion Salad

US-Russia tensions escalate over closure of Afghan supply base

Dandelion Salad

By Bill Van Auken
http://www.wsws.org
6 February 2009

The threatened closure of a key Pentagon supply base in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, with serious implications for the Obama administration’s planned escalation of the US-led war in Afghanistan, has deepened tensions between Washington and Moscow.

The Manas air base, located near the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, is the major air link between the US military and American occupation forces in Afghanistan. Last year, at least 170,000 US military personnel passed through the base on their way to or from Afghanistan, together with 5,000 tons of military equipment. Approximately 1,000 US troops are stationed at the base, together with smaller contingents from France and Spain.

[…]

via US-Russia tensions escalate over closure of Afghan supply base.

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Keep Watch On Central & South Asia by Bruce Gagnon

Kyrgyzstan to shut key NATO base

Barack Obama on Dandelion Salad

Obama, the military and the threat of dictatorship by Bill Van Auken

Dandelion Salad

by Bill Van Auken
http://www.wsws.org
23 December 2008

With his choice of Admiral Dennis Blair as director of national intelligence, President-elect Barack Obama has now named three recently retired four-star military officers to serve in his cabinet. This unprecedented representation of the senior officer corps within the incoming Democratic administration is indicative of a growth in the political power of the US military that poses a serious threat to basic democratic rights.

As head of the US military’s Pacific command in 1999-2000, Blair was distinguished by his efforts to solidarize the Pentagon with the military of Indonesia as it carried out butchery in East Timor, effectively vetoing the half-hearted human rights concerns voiced by the Clinton administration.

Before tapping Blair, Obama named former Marine Gen. James Jones as his national security adviser and former Army chief of staff Gen. Erik Shinseki as secretary of veterans affairs. It is also reported that the incoming administration may ask retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to stay on as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

[…]

“Our Constitution is at risk,” wrote Schweich. He warned that the elevation of an unprecedented number of former senior officers into Obama’s cabinet could “complete the silent military coup d’etat that has been steadily graining ground below the radar screen of most Americans and the media.”

Schweich, who served as an ambassador for counter-narcotics in Afghanistan and then oversaw international law enforcement affairs at the State Department, wrote that he “saw firsthand the quiet, de facto military takeover of much of the US government,” which in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said, “was, in theory, justified by the exigencies of war.”

[…]

via Obama, the military and the threat of dictatorship.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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Obama-Barack

Iran

Iraq