Showing posts with label war criminals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war criminals. Show all posts

Monday, February 2, 2015

Hell Hath No Fury Like Alpha Male @SenJohnMcCain Embarrassed Before His Hero


We all know that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is an angry, angry man. McCain is famous for having been a POW during the Vietnam War, surviving years of torture in order to return home and seek elected office. It must have been a personal milestone, then, to be elevated to Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee following his party's triumphs in the mid-term elections. McCain's image had been tarnished by his choice of running mate in the presidential election where Obama beat him. The former governor of Alaska seemed so brazenly ignorant and yes, dumb, that it was hard to credit McCain's judgement in choosing her. Unless, of course, he was determined to lose the election and thus play his part in what Frank Zappa famously called, "the entertainment division of the military-industrial complex."

Henry Kissinger, on the other hand, the exalted geriatric warmonger (see the citizens' idictment against him here) who bears major responsibility from having put McCain in harm's way in Vietnam -- his very presence is apparently enough to make McCain's heart swell with pride.

Imagine getting to chair a hearing with Kissinger as the honored guest! Such are the dreams that might keep a young airman imprisoned in the "Hanoi Hilton" from going mad.

Then, along come women -- women! -- dressed in pink, no less, to spoil the greatest day of your life.

Women with the effrontery to speak out of turn, disrupting the start of your hearing in the hallowed chambers of power. McCain appeared to lose his temper when he said, "Get out of here, you low-life scum" to Codepink's Alli McCracken, among others. Or, maybe it was a Freudian slip, since it would be difficult to find a scummier creature on this planet than Kissinger.

Should a powerful Senator and former candidate for the highest office in the land really have to call out, "If we can't get the Capitol Police in here immediately..." Such a plea for backup could make the pleader appear weak in his own eyes, and in the eyes of his hero.

McCain's false claim that Codepink protesters wanted to physically harm Henry Kissinger is a coward's defense. Even if McCain has failed to pay attention since 2003 when Codepink began disrupting congressional hearings to call out warmongers, his staff knows better than that. Did McCain's staff not brief him on what would be entirely likely to occur in that hearing? Was there no one in charge of making sure the Capitol Police -- who know Codepink protesters very, very well by now -- were in the room and alert to intervene when the disruptions began? As far as controlling the message, McCain and his staff made a poor showing.*

So poor that McCain is on record groveling (per C-Span's transcript):
HENRY... DOCTOR KISSINGER, I HOPE THAT... ON BEHALF OF ALL OF THE MEMBERS OF THIS COMMITTEE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE, IN FACT, FROM ALL OF MY COLLEAGUES. I WOULD LIKE TO APOLOGIZE FOR ALLOWING SUCH DISGRACEFUL BEHAVIOR TOWARDS A MAN WHO HAS SERVED THIS COUNTRY WITH THE GREATEST DISTINCTION AND I APOLOGIZE PROFUSELY. 
People often ask what is the point of such disruptions. Henry Kissinger got fawned over, not led away in handcuffs. Madeleine Albright was not called to account for the deaths of thousands of children in Iraq under U.S. sanctions prior to Shock and Awe, deaths she said were a price worth paying.

The point is that the message HENRY KISSINGER WAR CRIMINAL was seen by millions around the globe, including lots of young people for whom Kissinger is a cipher. The Vietnam war and the bombing of Cambodia and Laos are history to millennials and all who follow. It's why the Pentagon has embarked on an enormous propaganda campaign to rewrite the history of the U.S.'s genocidal exercise in Southeast Asia. And also why the organization Veterans for Peace, founded by Vietnam vets now long of tooth and grey of hair, has mounted its own campaign to tell the truth about that war. Their website for the purpose, Vietnam: Full Disclosure, will be a resource for educators for years to come.

Unless information control in the 21st century becomes even more insidiously effective. In which case, we'll all be reduced to accepting McCain and Kissinger and Albright's versions of history. And that really would be a tragedy.

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John McCain Blasts ‘Low-Life Scum’ Protesters at Senate Hearing
http://www.businessinsider.com/john-mccain-blasts-low-life-scum-protesters-2015-1
Business Insider
January 29, 2015

What John McCain Told Anti-War Protesters Who Interrupted a Senate Mtg Drew Applause From the Roomhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/01/29/john-mccain-to-protesters-who-barged-in-on-senate-hearing-get-out-of-here-you-low-life-scum/
The Blaze
January 29, 2015

Watch John McCain Call Kissinger Protesters ‘Low-Life Scum’
http://time.com/3687891/mccain-kissinger-protest/
TIME
January 29, 2015

John McCain Calls Ejected Protester a ‘Low-Life Scum’
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/01/29/john-mccain-calls-ejected-protester-a-low-life-scum/
The Wall Street Journal
January 29, 2015

‘Get out of here you low life scum’: John McCain loses his cool with protesters
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/sen-john-mccain-loses-cool-anti-war-protesters-article-1.2096577
New York Daily News
January 29, 2015

McCain to Kissinger protesters: ‘Get out of here, you low-life scum’
http://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2015/01/29/john-mccain-henry-kissinger-protesters/
USA Today: Politics
January 29, 2015

WATCH: McCain calls protesters ‘low-life scum’
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/231138-mccain-to-protestors-get-out-of-here-you-low-life-scum
The Hill
January 29, 2015

McCain to Protesters: You’re ‘Low-Life Scum’
https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/29/mccain-to-protesters-youre-low-life-scum/
Foreign Policy
January 29, 2015

McCain Calls Protesters ‘Low-Life Scum’ At Senate Hearing
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/01/29/382436198/mccain-calls-protesters-low-life-scum-at-senate-hearing
NPR
January 29, 2015

Code Pink Tires to Arrest 91-Year-Old Kissinger for ‘War Crimes’, Get Smacked Down by 94-Year-Old George Shultz -http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/01/29/code-pink-tries-to-arrest-91-year-old-kissinger-for-war-crimes-get-smacked-down-by-94-year-old-george-schultz/
PJ Media
January 29, 2015

Real Clear Politics
January 29, 2015

Senator John McCain Calls Out Protesters Who Swarmed Henry Kissinger - http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senator-john-mccain-calls-protesters-swarmed-henry-kissinger/story?id=28577623
ABC News
January 29, 2015

McCain rips protesters during Kissinger hearing, calls them ‘low-life scum’ - http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/29/mccain-rips-protesters-during-kissinger-hearing-calls-them-low-life-scum/
Fox News
January 29, 2015

McCain boots ‘low-life scum’ from hearing
CNN
January 29, 2015

McCain Lashes Out at ‘Low-Life Scum’ Protesters at Senate Hearing
NBC News
January 29, 2015

John McCain blasts ‘low-life scum’ protesters
The Washington Examiner
January 29, 2015

Heavy.com
January 29, 2015

John McCain to anti-war protesters: ‘Get out of here, you low-life scum’
The Washington Times
January 29, 2015

McCain To Protesters: ‘Get Out of Here You Low-Life Scum’
The Daily Caller
January 29, 2015

McCain to protesters: ‘Get out of here, you low-life scum’ http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/jan/29/mccain-to-protesters-get-out-of-here-you-low-life/
UT San Diego
January 29, 2015

Watch John McCain call a bunch of protesters ‘low-life scum’
The Week
January 29, 2015

BEASTMODE: McCain Owns Protester: ‘Get Out of Here, You Low-Life Scum’
The Washington Free Beacon
January 29, 2015

Sen. McCain calls Code Pink protesters ‘low-life scum’ after they shout at Kissinger
Tampa Bay Times
January 29, 2015


McCain to protesters against Henry Kissinger: ‘Get out of here, you low-life scum’
Star Tribune
January 29, 2015

McCain Snaps at Anti-Kissinger Protesters: ‘Get Out of Here You Low-Life Scum’
Mediaite
January 29, 2015

McCain to protesters: ‘Get out of here, you low-life scum’
Yahoo News UK
January 29, 2015

McCain boots ‘low-life scum’ from hearing
ABC15 Arizona
January 29, 2015

John McCain Slams Anti-Henry Kissinger Protester As ‘Low-Life Scum’
Huffington Post
January 29, 2015

McCain Calls Protesters ‘Low-Life Scum’
The Daily Beast
January 29, 2015

McCain to protesters: ‘Get out of here you, low-life scum’
Yahoo News
January 29, 2015

McCain Boots ‘Low Life Scum’ Protesters Out of Hearing with Kissinger
Talking Points Memo
January 29, 2015

Code Pink Tries to Arrest Kissinger - John McCain Tells Them “Get Out of Here You Lowlife Scum”
Gateway Pundit
January 29, 2015

McCain to protesters: ‘Get out of here, you low-life scum’
Fox10 Phoenix
January 29, 2015

McCain to Code Pink Protesters: ‘Get Out of Here, You Low-Life Scum’
National Review Online
January 29, 2015

Chicago Sun Times
January 29, 2015

UPDATE: Is McCain seeing red (or 'green') over Code Pink?
http://www.azcentral.com/story/ejmontini/2015/02/02/john-mccain-code-pink-henry-kissinger-clint-eastwood-low-life-scum/22729019/
AZ Central
February 2, 2015

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Monday, April 29, 2013

Mass Arrests At Hancock #Drone Base

Photo source: Syracuse Post-Standard coverage of the protests and arrests
Ann Wright sent around this press release from a weekend of drone resistance noting that $34,000 was needed to bail out those arrested during civil disobedience. People were blocking the gates at a military base in Syracuse, New York where drones are piloted, I modified the press release to highlight the local angle and sent it out to press contacts in Maine.

 When everyone does a part in the resistance, sharing info and helping to get the story out to the wider public, we are a team. I couldn't go to Syracuse, so I'm participating this way.
Photo source: Syracuse Post-Standard coverage of the protests and arrests

For more information: 
Carol Baum, Syracuse Peace Council,315-472-5478, 315-383-5738
Ellen Grady, Ithaca Catholic Worker, 607-279-8303

Activists Press Hancock Air Base to Obey International Law
275 People at Protest; 31 Arrested

Bruce Gagnon of Bath, Maine was among thirty-one members of the “Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars” to be arrested April 28, 2013 at Hancock Air Force Base in Syracuse, NY. Gagnon was protesting the illegal use of drones in Afghanistan,  Pakistan and other countries.

Gagnon is a co-coordinator of the campaign to Bring War $$ Home in Maine and a coordinator for the Global Network against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.

Over 275 people marched in a solemn funeral procession to demand that Hancock Air National Guard Base cease drone strikes. People carrying banners and coffins identified countries where U.S. drone attacks have killed over a thousand innocent civilians. As they were arrested, some read the names of people who have died in the drone attacks.

People who participated in the demonstration, including some who were arrested, came from all over the country to raise an outcry against the proliferation of drone strikes abroad, including countries with whom the US is not at war. Drone use violates the US Constitution, Article 6, and International Law, which the U.S. has signed on to. Demonstrators also object to the militarization of the police and the growing domestic use of drones. The protesters raised the issue that drone use globally makes Americans unsafe because of the blow back effect.

Demonstrators attempted to deliver a war crimes indictment to the base. It reads:
We, the people, charge the US President, Barak Obama, and the full military chain of command, to Commander Colonel Greg Semmel, every drone crew, and service members at Hancock Air Base, with crimes against humanity, with violations of part of the Supreme Law of the Land, extrajudicial killings, violation of due process, wars of aggression, violation national sovereignty, and killing of innocent civilians.
The thirty-one arrestees were arraigned in De Witt Town Court before Judges Benack, Gideon, and Jokl, who imposed bails ranging from $500 - $3500, totaling $34,000. Some of the defendants were released with appearance tickets   Others are refusing to post bail and will be held in jail until the next court date of May 7th & 8th. Donations may be sent to the Syracuse Peace Council, with checks made out to Syracuse Peace Council,note : Upstate Drone Action Bail Fund.  2013 E. Genessee St., Syracuse, NY 13210.

Those Arrested:
Beth Adams, Levertt, MA
John Amidon, Albany, NY
Cynthia Banas, Vernon, NY
Ellen Barfield, Baltimore, MD
Russell Brown, Buffalo, NY
Kate De Mott Grady, Ithaca, NY
Beatrice Dewing, New York City, NY
Max Farhi, Ithaca, NY
Sandra Fessler, Rochester, NY
Daniel Finley, Ithaca, NY
Bruce Gagnon, Bath, ME
Jack Gilroy, Binghamton, NY
Charlie Heyn, Damascus, PA
John Honeck, Hamlin, NY
Rae Kramer, Syracuse, NY
Joanne Lingle, Indianapolis, IN
Mary Loehr, Ithaca, NY
Bonnie Mahoney, Buffalo, NY
Harry Murray, Rochester, NY
Valerie Niederhoffer, Buffalo, NY
Julienne Oldfield, Syracuse, NY
Jules Orkin, Bergenfield, NJ
Elizabeth Pappalardo, Crystal Lake, DE
Joan Pleune, Brooklyn, NY
Beverly Rice
Grace Ritter, Ithaca, NY
Matthew Ryden
Andrew Schoerke, Shaftsbury, VT
Mary Snyder, Johnson City, NY
Eve Tetaz, Washington, DC
Patricia Wieland, Northampton, MA
Photo source: Syracuse Post-Standard coverage of the protests and arrests

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Friday, September 7, 2012

Might Makes Wrong: Obama's Persecution of Whistleblower Bradley Manning


Inline image 1

We were at Obama campaign headquarters in Portland, Maine yesterday to stand up for imprisoned whistleblower Bradley Manning. There was only one person working in the amazingly obscure location chosen for the campaign offices in Maine's largest city, miles from downtown and upstairs from a mattress store that has been going out of business for several years. The lonely field coordinator working in an suite of offices devoid of volunteers would not take our petition because "I'm not at that pay grade." I left it there anyway, on the bathroom sink, and we shared a lot of stickers.

The petition is particularly poignant because its online version includes the testimony of scores of disappointed former Obama supporters, people who actually worked to get him elected in 2008. I printed it out and I suspect that Obama field organizers really ought to read it. A typical comment by a signer goes like this:
Judy Stiller signed
I gave money when I really could not afford to do so. I canvassed and used many social media websites to promote Mr. Obama for President. I regret every bit of it. President Obama has caved to the right at every turn. Do the right thing and let this young hero go free!
The field organizer tried to tell Portland CODEPINK Local Coordinator Pat Taub and I that "Many people don't realize that Congress hasn't let..." but I am afraid that I interrupted the flow of scripted response to criticism of the POTUS to share that imprisonment of Bradley Manning is all Obama's. Well, actually I said something like, "I'm not sure you understand -- under our form of government, the punishment of whistleblower Bradley Manning is the responsibility of the Executive Branch. Attorney General Holder and the Justice Department are also part of the Executive Branch, and their failure to prosecute war crimes that Manning revealed, meanwhile allowing him to be tortured at Quantico, has nothing to do with Congress."

It was exciting to know that people in more than 30 cities all over the U.S. were visiting Obama campaign HQ to share similar messages. Pat made sure to make that point.

It doesn't matter what pay grade human beings define themselves by. They still have hearts and minds, and we can still reach out to offer them some truth. I really should have heard her out, and not interrupted. My bad.

I came home to find exciting news of several bold actions by my Pink sisters and brothers at the Democratic Party national convention in Charlotte. Rae Abileah had interrupted Steny Hoyer's speech by unfurling a banner and calling out, "Bring our war dollars home!" a meme that originated in Maine and has spread widely during the time Obama has presided over a federal budget that climbed from 51% to 57% military spending.

Then, in downtown Charlotte, pinksters unfurled a giant pink slip with a version of the  slogan Obama campaigned on: YES, WE CAN END WAR. Twenty-three year old Codepink staffer Alli McCracken was surrounded by 32 police officers and arrested for attaching the banner unlawfully to a parking garage. The magnitude of this crime can really only be appreciated by viewing said pink slip, the handiwork of prop genius Tighe Barry.

To paraphrase one of my favorite Occupy Wall St. slogans, if banking regulations were enforced as well as ordinances against unlawfully displaying banners in this country, the economy would not be such a disaster for the 99%.

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Saturday, August 11, 2012

Blair Witch Trial: Occupy Bangor Protester In Court Aug 21

A hearing on some internationally infamous disorderly conduct takes place Tuesday, August 21 at 1 p.m. in Maine District Court, 18 Colby Street, Waterville. 
Happiest mug shot: Lawrence Reichard after his arrest (Source: Bangor Daily News)
Lawrence Reichard was charged following his act of civil disobedience disrupting a speech by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a Colby College graduation ceremony on May 20.

Reichard was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for yelling “liar” and “warmonger” at Blair. A common occurrence in the UK, it was the first such protest in the U.S. to receive widespread coverage internationally.

It was a bad week for Tony Blair -- just a few days later he was shouted at by a protester who entered from behind the judge's seat at a court hearing in London.
Blair was reportedly invited to be the keynote speaker by Colby College board of trustees chair Robert Diamond Jr., formerly CEO of Barclays Bank. Diamond has now stepped down from both posts under investigation for banking fraud. Barclays was ordered by regulators to pay fines in both the U.S. and UK for rigging LIBOR, the world's benchmark interest rate.
Source: photo by David Leaming "Choose A Cause" Waterville Morning Sentinel 5/21/12
Reichard was with a group of protesters who greeted Blair at Colby College with signs. During Blair's introduction some of us shouted that Blair is a war criminal and should be arrested for lying us into war on Iraq, and were asked to leave. 
Source: "Tony Blair At Colby College: 'Are We An Empire That's Fading?'" by Hunter Stuart, Huffington Post
Reichard and another silent protester, Jody Spear (Colby '63), whose sign criticized globalization, remained.

When Blair began speaking, Reichard continued to shout until he was led away by police.

At his hearing for disorderly conduct in Maine District Court, Reichard will read a statement, copies of which will be made available. Reichard, a Bangor resident, is active with the Occupy Wall St. movement.

For further information contact Lawrence Reichard, (207) 907-2086, (home) (415) 794-2955 (cell) or by email: lreichard@gmail.com.
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Thursday, July 26, 2012

On The Farm With Bradley Manning: How to Be Human


Flyer from last spring by Elizabeth Barger, CODEPINK Local Coordinator and co-founding member of The Farm
The Farm is an eco village established decades ago by a group of idealistic, intelligent people who wanted to learn how to be more human. My family came here to rest after the punishing heat and militarism of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, which was full of strip malls with recruiting offices offering “careers” to low income youth. Their glossy posters were paid for by the beleaguered U.S. taxpayer, who is about to pony up another $606 billion for “defense” in fiscal year 2013.

This glossy poster was given to us by one of the Kansas City area activist artists, Marc Saviano. It was made at his own expense and will go home to Maine to stand on the bridge with us on Sundays – because dissent is patriotic.
Today we'll get a full tour of The Farm including its sustainable water system, composting toilets, adobe style buildings, and the internationally famed Midwifery Center established by the revolutionary of humane birthing in the U.S., Ina May Gaskin. She and her husband Steven were among the group with Eliz and Joe Barger that drove out of the SF Bay area in the early 1970's, headed away from the mean city streets and back toward the countryside. Besides The Farm they founded Plenty, an economic justice project, and Kids to the Country.

Yesterday we chilled out by The Farm's swimming hole with a slew of city kids, mostly from Nashville, that were enjoying consensual splashing while learning to swim, share, and make bead geckos and squid. Oh, and there was also crawdad catching and a snake watching walk. Our grandson, who is 7, was included in their games and swimming lessons just as if he belonged to the group. Which he did. He was recovering from a hot morning mixing straw and red clay with the building crew, daubs of which remained after sluicing off in a solar shower.

The Farm is a teaching center offering all kinds of lessons in sustainable living. What I hope my grandson takes away is the notion that children are welcome, and that everyone cooperating makes for the best kind of life possible.

At each river or stream I've been grateful to rest beside I find Bradley Manning in my mind's eye, and I invite him to walk free with me beside the water.

Because exposing war crimes is not a crime, it is an act of courage and humanity.

Recorded interview on Press TV about Manning's imprisonment and alleged crimes.
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Sunday, May 20, 2012

Why I Heckled Tony Blair, War Criminal, at Colby College Graduation

If you woke on a beautiful spring Sunday in May on a pond in Maine, what would you do? A canoe ride on water as smooth as glass, and breakfast on the deck, perhaps -- followed by disrupting international war criminal Tony Blair at Colby College graduation in Waterville!
Photo: Steve Demtriou
Who knew our protest would lead news coverage of the ceremony? (Washington Post, WGME, Houston Chronicle, and Daily Mail, to name a few.)
Source: War Crimes International, Tony Bliar
With the BLAIR IS A WAR CRIMINAL sign I scrawled hastily in pink lipstick, we approached the back row of the outdoor ceremony where the former British PM, who lied about WMDs in Iraq and has the blood on his hands of thousands of innocent civilians, was to speak.

Before we even made it off the street we were approached by a man from Vermont who said, "Thank you for being here. I was disgusted that Colby would invite such a slimy speaker for graduation this year." (More of the disgusted were heard from in Op-Ed News and the local newspapers.)

As we stood holding our signs and quietly listening to graduates give a prayer and then a speech, we were approached by Colby College security guards who told us to keep quiet or else we'd be asked to leave.
Photo: Steve Demtriou
When the introduction for Blair began I waited for a pause and then called out "Tony Blair is a war criminal! He should be arrested. He lied us into war in Iraq. He's a war criminal!"

Just then I was grabbed by my arm and turned to find myself staring into the badge of Waterville's Chief of Police Joe Massey, who told me I had to leave. I told him he really shouldn't have his hands on me, and wriggled free. A couple of Colby security guards and a few more uniformed police scurried up and the guards said they had warned us that we had to be quiet to stay. We were now told if we didn't leave we'd be arrested, so my husband and I decided to go back to our car.

Ridgely Fuller stayed behind to call out "War Criminal!" once again as Blair approached the podium. She, too, was asked to leave. She carried a Draw-a-thon image by artist Brian Reeves:

Because both of us had CODEPINK on our sign and banner, the Associated Press report picked up this nugget, ostensibly a quote from Waterville police (which I very much doubt):
Protesters carried signs saying "Code Pink," a grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end U.S.-funded wars and to challenge global militarism, police said.
Lawrence Reichard stayed behind to call out "warmonger" and more, and when he refused to leave, was arrested. We know Lawrence from Occupy Bangor, and I've seldom seen a happier mug shot than the one of him released by the Waterville Police Department and carried by news outlets in the US and the UK:
Source: "Tony Blair heckled during graduation address at Maine college" The Guardian
As we walked back to our car our escort had dwindled to two Colby security guards. I asked one of them if he supported what had been done in Iraq, killing thousands or maybe even a million women, children, and other civilians.

He said he didn't have any opinion about that. "I'm just doing my job," he told me.

I said that was the defense used by German soldiers during the trials of Nazis after the war, that they were just doing their job. I asked him if he ever studied history and he said no, so I suggested he might want to look up the Nuremberg trials sometime.

As he gave us our final warning that we'd be arrested if we tried to come back,  it was just as Ridgely caught up to us. I told him, "We are civil disobedients. We've been arrested before, like at the White House."

His eyes lit up. "Really? You mean the one just the other day?"

Another thing that made me think he was kind of sympathetic to our side was when I had asked my husband, "Why do you think Colby chose such a creepy speaker for their commencement?" the young security guard commented, "Yeah, Bates [another Maine college] got Robert DeNiro."
Photo: Steve Demtriou
As we left the campus I saw an acquaintance who works at Colby, in a pretty dress, standing obediently off to one side.

I feel that the passivity and complicity of US citizens in the dirty dealings of NATO and its member nations, blindly paying federal taxes every year to fund the slaughter of innocents, afraid to protest, afraid to rock the boat for fear of job loss or being seen as impolite, is actually the biggest threat to global security.

And that's why, as my compatriots were protesting the disgusting spectacle of the NATO summit in Chicago this weekend, I disrupted Colby College's graduation ceremony.

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Thursday, March 29, 2012

Is the U.S. doing the right thing fighting in Afghanistan? 69% Say NO

Qais Usyan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
It's not too surprising that the recent cascade of bad news from the graveyard of empires has resulted in even mainstream media reporting that the people are fed up with war in Afghanistan. Of course Afghan people have been fed up for a long time. But who in the Obama administration listens to them?
Source: RAWA
The 99% in the U.S. are another matter. They are the ones being taxed to buy the drones and pay the salaries of the soldiers pressed into service for their third or fourth tours. Now a whopping 69% of the 99% responded NO when asked "Is the U.S. doing the right thing fighting in Afghanistan?" by a CBS News/New York Times poll. Add in the 8% who responded that they weren't sure and you've got a mere 23% still in favor of continuing the longest war this country has ever paid for. Taxation without representation?

Rep. Barbara Lee and colleagues, including both Maine's reps Mike Michaud and Chellie Pingree, have sponsored a resolution calling to limit funding to the rapid, safe and responsible return of all U.S. troops and "Defense" Department contractors. What, just as constructing an even bigger, maximum security prison at Bagram Air Base was getting underway? I applaud the effort that HR 780 represents, but I'm betting those who profit from building the infrastructure of occupation have a lot more influence in Congress than 69% of my fellow citizens. (Let's call Congress anyway: 202-224-3121.)

The alleged lone gunman of Kandahar got a lot of press -- once they had whisked his wife and kids on base, shut down public access to her blog about life as a military spouse, and tried to erase Robert Bales from the Internet. That may have soured some hearts and minds here at home, along with the creeping suspicion that he wasn't acting alone, and that the government is lying to us about it.

It's also hard not to notice the increasingly frequent attacks on NATO soldiers by men wearing the uniforms of our supposed partner the Afghan army. Or maybe "Green on Blue" violence is just being reported more in the mainstream press these days?

The narrative of the lone gunman who has had enough and snaps and goes on a killing rampage was eloquently questioned by Chris Hedges in a recent AlterNet piece "Murder Is Not An Anomoly in War". It is an essay update to the thesis of his book War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, as applied to both soldiers and the journalists who cover their stories. When does killing stop being seen as an anomoly, and start being seen as business as usual?

General John Allen, commander of both U.S. and NATO forces as quoted by CBS reporting on the results of their poll:
"I worry that the complications from these recent events can distract us from the larger strategic imperative of this campaign," Allen said.
Or maybe that should read the larger $trategic imperative.

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Saturday, March 17, 2012

Story Of Why There Are Burned Children's Corpses in Afghanistan Stinks

Source: Al Jazeera, from a US military newsletter.
This blurb about the supposedly lone gunman in the Kandahar massacre caught my eye in Al Jazeera's coverage of the ongoing controversy about whodunit to 16 civilians in the middle of the night:
Bales was flown from Kuwait to a military base in Kansas where he will be held in solitary confinement awaiting charges, the US army said.

"The Army confirms that Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Bales is being held in pre-trial confinement," the army said in a statement on Friday.
So Bales is now locked up in the same facility with inconvenient truth teller Bradley Manning. And being held in the same torturous conditions as Manning was at Quantico before being transfered to Leavenworth. Manning's pre-trial hearing resumed this week; he's now been in detention for 664 days. Why was he kept in solitary for so long before being charged or tried?


There are two plausible reasons for this type of cruel and unusual punishment:

1) To keep the prisoner from talking to anyone who might be able to leak the truth to the rest of us.

2) To induce psychological deterioration that will render the prisoner unfit to defend himself from the lies the government plans to tell about him and his actions.

On the other hand, maybe it's not so unusual anymore.

In 2012 nonviolent protesters can be physically assaulted, have their coats confiscated, and be locked up overnight in a freezing cell with no bed or chair, merely for calling out Bank of America's defrauding of the 99%. In other words, for speaking the truth in public -- dangerous for all concerned.

Your government is so serious about this that they will fire you for linking to Wikileaks.

This proved to be a big problem for the prosecution in the Manning case because they failed to get several important emails from the court since government spam filters block out anything with the word Wikileaks! (Stuff like this makes me wonder how the humorists at The Onion hope to write headlines funnier than that. You cannot make this shit up.)

In the Bales case, President Karzai told family members of the 16 victims that U.S. officials  'did not cooperate' with Kandahar probe. Many in Afghanistan doubt that the massacre could possibly have been effected by someone acting alone, considering the multiple locations and timing. Some are suggesting an investigation by Afghan officials uncovered evidence that as many as 15 or 20 Special Forces soldiers were involved, possibly as retaliation for an IED event that produced troop casualties.
  
But would the U.S. military lie about how many were involved? What do you think?

In a week of bad news another incident was swept under the carpet but, the bulge still shows: Secretary of Defense Panetta landed in country on Friday, but his high ranking military welcome committee had to hit the deck to avoid being run over by an Afghan translator who had stolen an SUV just minutes prior. The interior of his vehicle ignited shortly after missing them, and he died of burns later that day, so we'll never know his side of the story. But here's what top brass put out for info on the incident, as reported by AP via sfgate.com:

Very shortly after Gurganus dodged the car, the commander spoke to reporters at Camp Leatherneck, which is adjacent to Bastion, a British air field. And despite repeated questions about security in the area, did not reveal the incident. Instead, he told reporters that there had been no violence in his area in the wake of the shooting spree by a U.S. soldier that killed 16 Afghans last weekend.
"We've had zero incidents," Gurganus said. "We've not so much as even had a two man protest at this point in time." He later added that, "You can't get a whole lot safer than right here when you're surrounded by everybody else on the base."
Really? Is that why he took everyone's rifles away from them?
  
Let's just end with the third fishy story of our week in the graveyard of empires, this one about a NATO helicopter that crashed killing, among others, 12 Turkish soldiers, and two unfortunate young women that were in the house it landed on in Kabul. Why did it crash? As reported by AP via Common Dreams:
the Turkish military said in a statement "Twelve of our military personnel on board were martyred,"...

There was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the crash, NATO said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the helicopter was one of two that took off on Friday. "Unfortunately, the one in front came down for an unknown reason," he said.
Wreckage from the helicopter crash depicts your tax $$ at work in Afghanistan after more than a decade of war. SOURCE: Euronews
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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Beware Pressing Reset Button On Moral Authority On The Ides of March

Judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason.
Ah, hubris. The two celebrity spokesmen of the Anglo-American empire had a chummy time stroking each other's egos today. Neither the Kandahar massacre nor the Ides of March appeared to faze them a bit. As Business Week reported it:
The prime minister [Cameron] responded by all but endorsing Obama’s re-election in his own nine-minute toast. He cited the U.S.-led coalition effort in Libya, the surge in Afghanistan and the troop withdrawal from Iraq. The president “has pressed the reset button on the moral authority of the entire free world,” he said.
Fucking A. Our male heads of state are now so powerful they command the very moral universe to do their bidding. Like in a video game, all they have to do is press reset, and all the dead souls that are marked down on their side of the ledger lift them up to be exalted by us commoners.

This is an old phenomenon.

The Ides of March put me in mind of Shakespeare's opening scene for Julius Caesar, in which the 99% are standing around in their dress clothes and are scorned by a couple of patricians for waiting to cheer triumphant Caesar when "many a time and oft" they had cheered Pompey, whom Caesar has just slain.
Source: Daily Mail, UK
I imagine what the Bard might say about my friends and countrymen who still fawn over Obama and pledge their fealty, joining their fortune to his, basking in the supposed glory of raining down death all over the globe:

"You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things"
Like the poor fool who snapped during his 4th deployment and went about murdering children, tipping the longest invisible war on Afghanistan into the public arena long enough for a wave of revulsion to sweep over us.

It didn't last long. Before 48 hours had passed we were back to the gross canard of a moral reset button, and could get on with the real business of government-media-weapons production.

But the titan stumbles once again. In what Ralph Lopez blogging at WarisaCrime.org described as a
bombshell report which is to Afghanistan what the Pentagon Papers were to Vietnam, "Dereliction of Duty II: Senior Military Leaders’ Loss of Integrity Wounds Afghan War Effort" [Lt. Col. Daniel] Davis all but calls his top commanders skilled, habitual, wouldn't-know-truth-if-it-hit-them-in-the-head bald-faced liars about the situation in Afghanistan.
See, the empire needs a permanent base in Afghanistan, and to control Pakistan, in order to capture the central, plummy prize: Iran. For what reason? Why, to make you safer.

So ours is not to reason why the Boston subway that moves the 99% to work and school is being slashed again while the CEO of Bank of America earned $6 million+ this year.

Ours is not to reason why the U.S. can have South Korea deny entry to three Vets for Peace organizers headed to defend Jeju Island from being entombed in concrete so Aegis nuclear destroyers can ply the South China Sea.

Ours is not to reason why Bradley Manning is charged with aiding Al Qaida when George W. Bush undoubtedly and Barack Obama certainly have aided all violent terrorist organizations by continually creating new militantly grieving survivors of aerial bombing and night raids and depleted uranium. And rape. Etc. (Besides which, Al Qaida? Really? We are still the laughing stock of the world for our colossal ignorance of facts on the ground.)

Ours is but to do and die in the graveyard of illusory empire.



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