Reinventing Guatemalan History

by Stephen Lendman

History reinventors support despots. Social democrats are vilified. Crimes of war, against humanity and genocide are sanitized. They're whitewashed. They disappear in plain sight.

Wall Street Journal columnist Mary O'Grady tried reinventing Guatemalan history. She failed. More on that below.

Supreme Court Colludes with Monsanto

by Stephen Lendman

It's no surprise. Michael Parenti calls America's High Court its "autocratic branch." 

It's notoriously pro-business. It's longstanding. In Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railway (1886), it granted corporations legal personhood.

Iran War Weekly

May 20, 2013

Hello All – It’s official.  After almost a year of no progress in negotiations between “the West” and Iran about Iran’s nuclear program, last week’s meetings in Istanbul confirmed that there would be, indeed, no progress until at least after Iran’s presidential election, which will take place on June 14^th.  Whatever the outcome of the election, it is likely that the post-election resumption of talks (if any) will take place in an international landscape greatly altered by the fighting in Syria.

Battle in Syria Pulls Hezbollah Further Into Assad’s War - NYTimes.com

Obama voices concern to Lebanon on Hezbollah role in Syria - Reuters

Syria Says the Army Restores Security and Stability to Most of al-Qseir in Homs- SANA, Syria

Idriss says Free Syrian Army well armed and determined to defend the city, warns Lebanon to restrain Hezbollah - THE DAILY STAR

Senior Hizbullah Official Killed in Syria Fighting - Israel National News

FSA: Mustafa Badreddine Leading Hizbullah Operations in Qusayr — Naharnet

Hariri slams state inaction over Hezbollah role in Syria - THE DAILY STAR

Tensions over Syria convulse Lebanese city again, 5 killed - Reuters

Attacks kill 95 in Iraq, hint of Syrian spillover - Yahoo! News

Iraqi campaign boosts Iraq-Syria border security - Al-Shorfa

Tribal and Islamist clashes in Syria reveal deep divisions - The National

Syria's Raqa opposition chief kidnapped, NGO says - afp

Video shows Syrian Islamists flogging men over illegal marriage - Yahoo! News

VIDEO: Sharia in Syria - whipping of men - LiveLeak.com

VIDEO: Evidence Of Iranian Arms Provided To Syria In The Past 18 Months - Brown Moses Blog

VIDEO: Syria crisis: 'Iraqi Shia fighters' join regime in battle - BBC News

VIDEO: Syria's makeshift oil refineries: 'It is like hell' –  guardian.co.uk

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Friends of Syria to push for peace conference - AFP

Russia: Assad foes must come to Syria meeting without conditions - Reuters

Syria top priority as Saudi crown prince visits Turkey - Alarabiya.net

William Hague hints at veto of Syria arms ban - FT.com

Syrian opposition meets in Madrid over conflict - AFP

Syria, Russia, and the S-300: Military and Technical Background - canadafreepress.co

VIDEO: The coalition of peaceful change forces welcomes peace initative for Syria - YouTube

To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com

By Dave Lindorff

           (This article was originally written forWhoWhatWhy News)

There's a contradiction built into every campaign promise about transparent government beyond the failure to keep the promises.  Our government is, in significant portion, made up of secret operations, operations that include warmaking, kidnapping, torture, assassination, and infiltrating and overthrowing governments.  A growing movement is ready to see that end.

The Central Intelligence Agency is central to our foreign policy, but there is nothing intelligent about it, and there is no good news to be found regarding it.  Its drone wars are humanitarian and strategic disasters.  The piles of cash it keeps delivering to Hamid Karzai fuel corruption, not democracy.  Whose idea was it that secret piles of cash could create democracy? (Nobody's, of course, democracy being the furthest thing from U.S. goals.)  Lavishing money on potential Russian spies and getting caught helps no one, and not getting caught would have helped no one.  Even scandals that avoid mentioning the CIA, like Benghazigate, are CIA blowback and worse than we're being told.

We've moved from the war on Iraq, about which the CIA lied, and its accompanying atrocities serving as the primary recruiting tool for anti-U.S. terrorists, to the drone wars filling that role.  We've moved from kidnapping and torture to kidnapping and torture under a president who, we like to fantasize, doesn't really mean it.  But the slave-owners who founded this country knew very well what virtually anyone would do if you gave them power, and framed the Constitution so as not to give presidents powers like these.

There are shelves full in your local bookstore of books pointing out the CIA's outrageous incompetence.  The brilliant idea to give Iran plans for a nuclear bomb in order to prevent Iran from ever developing a nuclear bomb is one of my favorites. 

But books that examine the illegality, immorality, and anti-democratic nature of even what the CIA so ham-handedly intends to do are rarer.  A new book called Dirty Wars, also coming out as a film in June, does a superb job.  I wrote a review a while back.  Another book, decades old now, might be re-titled "Dirty Wars The Prequel."  I'm thinking of Douglas Valentine's The Phoenix Program. 

It you read The Phoenix Program about our (the CIA's and "special" forces') secret crimes in Eastern Asia and Dirty Wars about our secret crimes in Western Asia, and remember that similar efforts were focused on making life hell for millions of people in Latin America in between these twin catastrophes, and that some of those running Phoenix were brought away from similar sadistic pursuits in the Philippines, it becomes hard to play along with the continual pretense that each uncovered outrage is an aberration, that the ongoing focus of our government's foreign policy "isn't who we are." 

Targeted murders with knives in Vietnam were justified with the same rhetoric that now justifies drone murders.  The similarities include the failure of primary goals, the counterproductive blowback results, the breeding of corruption abroad and at home, the moral and political degradation, the erosion of democratic ways of thinking, and -- of course -- the racist arrogance and cultural ignorance that shape the programs and blind their participants to what they are engaged in.  The primary difference between Phoenix and drone kills is that the drones don't suffer PTSD.  The same, however, cannot be said for the drone pilots. 

"The problem," wrote Valentine, "was one of using means which were antithetical to the desired end, of denying due process in order to create a democracy, of using terror and repression to foster freedom.  When put into practice by soldiers taught to think in conventional military and moral terms, Contre Coup engendered transgressions on a massive scale.  However, for those pressing the attack on VCI, the bloodbath was constructive, for indiscriminate air raids and artillery barrages obscured the shadow war being fought in urban back alleys and anonymous rural hamlets.  The military shield allowed a CIA officer to sit behind a steel door in a room in the U.S. Embassy, insulated from human concern, skimming the Phoenix blacklist, selecting targets for assassination, distilling power from tragedy."

At some point, enough of us will recognize that government conducted behind a steel door can lead only to ever greater tragedy. 

In an email that Valentine wrote for RootsAction.org on Monday, he wrote: "Through its bottomless black bag of unaccounted-for money, much of it generated by off-the-books proprietary companies and illegal activities like drug smuggling, the CIA spreads corruption around the world.  This corruption undermines our own government and public officials.  And the drone killings of innocent men, women, and children generate fierce resentment.. . .Tell your representative and senators right now that the CIA is the antithesis of democracy and needs to be abolished."

America: A Modern-Day Sparta

by Stephen Lendman

Permanent war is longstanding policy. America deplores peace. Throughout its history, it's waged war annually at home and/or abroad. Today it does so globally.

Giving peace a chance is loathed. Direct or proxy wars rage in multiple countries. 

Guantanamo Force-Feeding Constitutes Torture

by Stephen Lendman

Guantanamo detention constitutes torture, abuse and ill-treatment. Long-term detention compounds it. 

Force-feeding increases unconscionable pain and suffering. Doing so violates core rule of law principles.

Syrian Army, Hezbollah Move Into Rebel-Held Qusayr - NYTimes.com

Benjamin Netanyahu threatens more Israeli strikes on Syria - Telegraph

Syria ready to unleash missiles on Tel Aviv if attacked by Israel - The Sunday Times

VIDEO: Syrian TV coverage of Army's Military Operations to Retake the Key City of Qusayr  - YouTube

VIDEO: Rebels film Qusayr under bombardment - YouTube

VIDEO: FSA Casualties in the Battle of Al-Qusayr - YouTube

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EU decision to lift Syrian oil sanctions boosts jihadist groups - guardian.co.uk

Al-Qaeda plunders Syria's oilfields - Independent.ie

VIDEO: The Telegraph visits the oil fields of Syria - YouTube

Syria: Jabhat al-Nusra split after leader's pledge of support for al-Qaeda - Telegraph

Jabhat al-Nusra - A Strategic Briefing - quilliamfoundation.org

VIDEO: Sharia in Syria - whipping of men - LiveLeak.com

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Time limits on Syria conference ‘counterproductive’ – Lavrov - The Voice of Russia

EU more viable model for Syrian Kurds than Iraq’s Kurdistan: PYD leader Salih Muslim - ekurd

Assad says no info on journalists missing in Syria - AFP

To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com

Disconnect: Soaring Markets/Troubled Economies

by Stephen Lendman

Forget everything you learned about markets, economics and finance. Perhaps Newton, Galileo, Copernicus, Darwin, Freud, Einstein, and other noted figures were wrong.

Central banks run today's world. Major ones matter most. Money printing madness controls everything. Love doesn't make the world go round. Liquidity-driven markets reflect the power of bankers to do it. 

America Honors Its Worst

by Stephen Lendman

Presidential Medals of Freedom are awarded annually. They mock what they claim to represent. Many go to deplorable recipients. 

Previous dishonorees include GHW Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Gates, Henry Kissinger, Tony Blair, Shimon Peres, Margaret Thatcher, Alvaro Uribe, Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, and Alan Greenspan among others.

by Debra Sweet         While promoting the message to Close Guantanamo that we are raising funds to publish in The New York Times, we  have been hearing, especially in the Twitterverse, that people think, because Obama promised to close Guantanamo, and says that Congress is not allowing him to do that, the main problem is with Congress.

Syria's Assad says he won't leave before elections are held in his country - Yahoo! News

VIDEO: Interview: Bashar al-Assad on Syria and the international community – guardian.co.uk

Syrian troops advance in northern, southern areas as rebels storm central towns - Xinhua | English.news.cn

Syrian army thwarts infiltration from Lebanon - AFP

Official: Gunmen abduct father of Syria deputy FM - AFP

Syrian opposition considers sacking its interim PM Hitto - McClatchy

Kurdish Youth Groups in Syria Blame Opposition Parties for Divisions - Rudaw

One Year After the Houla Massacre. New Report on Official vs. Real Truth - globalresearch.ca 

Was The Attack In Saraqeb Chemical Weapons, Or Something Else (VIDEOS)? - Brown Moses Blog

VIDEO: Saudi cannibal rebel in Syria is interviewed, He ate the heart of a soldier - YouTube

VIDEO: The "Osama bin Laden" brigade, It belongs to the Souqour Dimashq (Hawks of Damascus) Battalion of the “Free Syrian Army” - YouTube

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Turkey "softens opposition" to Syria conference, Obama sways Erdogan on Russia-US brokered peace deal - AFP

VIDEO: Angered by Erdogan’ policy towards Syria hundreds of protesters clash with Turkish police near Syrian border - RT News

VIDEO: Turkish citizens blame government negligence for border town blasts - YouTube

US Secretary of Defense : US, Russia "are doing their best to convince the powers in the region to be cautious against any escalation in military options" in Syria- SANA, Syria

Putin sending a letter to Obama,The key message will be that Russia and the US must jointly respond to global challenges - Russia Beyond The Headlines

Assad accuses Israel of providing intelligence to Syrian rebels -  Haaretz Daily Newspaper

Tunisia to reopen its embassy in Syria - Medafrica Times

Lebanon arrests a network smuggling Syrian antiquities - Ya Libnan

Hackers target Saudi government websites - Al Jazeera English

To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com

IRS Scandal Headlines: More Than Meets the Eye

by Stephen Lendman

More than targeting political enemies is involved. More on than below. The practice is longstanding. Republican and Democrat administrations use the IRS abusively.

During the Coolidge administration, Republican Senator James Couzens investigated the IRS' predecessor - the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). 

Putin v. Obama et al

by Stephen Lendman

On May 16, the Wall Street Journal headlined "Russia Raises Stakes in Syria," saying:

CODEPINK in April organized protests at General Atomics in San Diego (see Los Angeles Times coverage), maker of Predator drones, and at the home of its CEO in La Jolla, Calif.

Some groups have expressed interest in conversations between anti-war activists, social service proponents, and labor unionists.

What’s important is that you take organizing on federal budget priorities to a new place, use your imagination, and connect people who have been part of anti-war activism and advocacy for social services, as well as those impacted by federal budget cuts.

III. Researching the issues in your area

Researching Federal Cuts to Social Programs

Locating the Social Security office in your area. Social Security and Medicare benefits would be reduced in Republican and White House budget proposals by what is known as ‘Chained CPI.’ Locate the Social Security office nearest you at this site.

Food Stamps in Your Community. Use this interactive tool to find the number of people in your county receiving Food Stamps, how it’s changed since 2000, and the percentage of the population receiving them.

The National Priorities Project has created interactive tools to calculate how much the federal government spends in your state and county (and proposes to in 2014) by sector.

The Coalition on Human Needs produces Sequester Impact: Weekly Summaries that you can download or receive from CHN. You can also see a map of sequester impacts produced by the Center for American Progress, which may show some in your area, with links to news sources.

Download this Sequestration Toolkit (sample press release, letter to the editor, tweets, how to tell your story, helpful graphics) from the Half in Ten Campaign, a project of the Coalition for Human Needs, Center for American Progress and the Leadership Conference.

The National Education Association has an Ed Flight campaign (take a picture of yourself holding a paper airplane and post it to Congress)

MoveOn Petition:   Fix the Sequester Cuts for the Poor, Not Just Congressional Travel

Background Information:


Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:  Congress Addresses Flight Delays But Leaves Other Sequestration Problems Unsolved by Sharon Parrott, Vice President for Budget Policy and Economic Opportunity, April 26, 2013.

Coalition on Human Needs:  Fear of Flying: Congress Fixes Waits in Airports but Lets the Poor Wait One More Year for Housing Vouchers, in Human Needs Report, April 30, 2013.

“21 Statistics About The Explosive Growth Of Poverty In America That Everyone Should Know” by Michael T. Snyder.

Center for American Progress, Sequestration Nation: Congress Acts to Ease Sequestration’s Pain on Air Travelers by Kwami Boadi, April 29, 2013.

Researching Military Contractors and CEOs in Your Area

1.   Draw on knowledge that you and allies have already developed. Many groups and activists have researched and acted around military contractors. While information often changes, this experience and knowledge can be important for understanding what the contractor does and how it contributes to war, logistics of protesting, company labor, economics of conversion, local government relations, etc.

2.   Contact Jobs Not Wars organizers to talk. We can help you talk through your action, learn about military contractor sites and social spending cuts, and connect with other organizers.

3.   Identify Pentagon contractors in your zip code or Congressional district. 

A. Use the web site usaspending.gov/advanced-search to search for Pentagon contracts in your area. In the field for “Department/Agency” select Dept of Defense (at bottom of list); select a fiscal year or years; in “Place of Performance Location” select a zip code, state or Congressional district, and click on “Search” button at top of screen.

B. Here is a list of the top 100 Pentagon contractors and the amount they received in 2012. Many of these contractors have multiple sites around the country in addition to their corporate headquarters, which can be a focus for Jobs Not Wars actions or events.

C. An initial map of military contractors is here.

D. The collaborative watchdog project Crocodyl produced critical informative profiles of 27 military contractors in 2010, posted here.

4.      Locate military contractor CEOs made wealthy by Pentagon pork.

A.  Find the addresses of homes of CEOs of larger corporations here.

B.  Find out how much the most highly paid Pentagon contractor CEOs are compensated from The Washington Post and Forbes.

C.  Learn about the revolving door between corporate contractors and Pentagon generals, Strategic Maneuvers: The Revolving Door from the Pentagon to the Private Sector, a report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

5.      Find out how much the corporation spent on lobbying and campaign contributions.

Pentagon contractors employ hundreds of lobbyists to influence federal government decisions, and contribute many millions to candidates’ campaigns, creating an unfair playing field and distorting policy. In the first three months of this year, while Congress and the White House made budget proposals, Pentagon contractors spent more than $33 million on lobbying. Use the Open Secrets database on lobbying and database on corporate campaign contributions.

6.      Learn about fraud, corruption of military contractors.

The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) maintains a Contractor Misconduct Database that compiles information, reports, and sources on federal contractor fraud, kickbacks, discrimination, environmental pollution, etc., by corporation.

7.      Skills for researching military contractors.

Watch the webinar led by POGO researcher Nick Schwellenbach on researching military contracts. (62-minute video here)

Use the tools at Strategic Corporate Research: Looking Inside the Corporate World.

Focusing on Economic Conversion from Military to Non-Military Activity

1.  An important study by University of Massachusetts economists (pdf here) shows that “investments in clean energy, health care and education create a much larger number of jobs across all pay ranges,” including high-paying jobs (over $64,000 a year), than military spending does. Education spending generates more than twice as many jobs as Pentagon spending. Bruce Gagnon urges us to “to internalize those study results so [we] can write and speak about them clearly.”

2.  Miriam Pemberton of the Institute for Policy Studies has been researching and promoting economic conversion of Pentagon spending for many years. She’s produced this fact sheet on replacing defense industry jobs and an offer to collaborate with local activists for such transitions. She recently posted the top 10 myths of the jobs argument against military cuts as well as a short analysis of sequestration about why the Pentagon is due for downsizing.

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 [DOWNLOAD PDF]

Toolkit for Jobs Not Wars June Actions

By Ann Wright

The city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee and its neighbor Knoxville, are government towns.  Oak Ridge has been called “the closed city,” reminiscent of government cities in the old Soviet Union that were closed to the public because of sensitive weapons production and other activities Soviets wanted to keep from prying eyes.  In the case of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the U.S. government wants to keep the production of nuclear bombs and their components away from public scrutiny.

Oak Ridge is a tough place to challenge the biggest employer in the area, a southern town where dissent is abnormal and prejudices of all sorts run deep in the culture and heritage.

Russia provides Syria with advanced missiles, To counter any effort at imposing a naval embargo, establishing a no-fly zone or carrying out limited airstrikes - NYTimes.com

Russia boosts fleet off Syria, A warning to the West and Israel not to intervene in Syria's bloody civil war - WSJ

US general slams Russia for giving Syria anti-ship missiles, calls it an "unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime" - AP

Russia defends weapons shipments to Syria, “There is absolutely no danger that these systems may end up in the hands of Hezbollah" -  latimes.com

Russia has data that Israel targeted Syrian defense facilities in May: Lavrov - Strategic-Culture.org

Syria not a bargaining chip in relations with West : Lavrov - RT Russian politics

Fox News Video Allegedly Shows Israeli Special Forces Returning From A Mission In Syria (VIDEO) - Business Insider

France opposes Syria conference if Iran to attend - Reuters

Turkey's Erdogan says U.N. must decide on any Syria no-fly zone - Reuters

Peacekeepers in Golan Abducted but Released by Rebels - NYTimes.com

Number of Syrian refugees tops 1.5 million mark, says UN agency - United Nations News Centre

Moscow ‘Hopeful’ on Syria Chemical Weapons Inspections, "the Syrian government has expressed readiness - after that place near Aleppo is inspected - to consider requests for inspections in other parts of the country” - RIA Novosti

Financial Times becomes the latest victim of the Syrian Electronic Army as its website and Twitter accounts get hacked - The Next Web

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Qatar bankrolls Syrian revolt with cash and arms, has spent as much as $3bn over the past two years supporting the rebellion - FT.com

How Qatar seized control of the Syrian revolution, Yet it also stands accused of dividing the opposition - FT.com

Insight: Syria's Nusra Front eclipsed by Iraq-based al Qaeda - Reuters

Jabhat al-Nusra and The Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (VIDEOS) - Brown Moses Blog

Vice and virtue police gain foothold in rebel-held territory in Syria to enforce a strict and brutally imposed form of Islamic rule - USAToday

Syrian rebels demand weapons before talks - The Washington Post

Syrian opposition to name new president in Istanbul - hurriyetdailynews.com

Syrian Oil Becomes Fault Line In War, the European Union lifting of the oil embargo on the opposition is likely to stir up Kurdish-Arab strife - aina.org

Syrian grain imports pick up despite worsening war - Ahram Online

Germany fears return of European jihadists in Syria, Up to 700 Europeans are fighting the Assad regime - The Guardian

Iraqis in southern city mourn 2 Shiite fighters killed in Syria - Fox News

Sectarianism in Iraq stoked by Syrian war - The Washington Post

To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com

                It has been some time since the language of U.S. politics has been twisted so far as to render words nearly meaningless. In an effort to clarify what is actually being said in Washington, D.C., this writer offers this glossary of terms, with historical context, current usage and, at times, synonyms and antonyms.

                Some of these words and terms have been around for a while; others are brand new.

by Debra Sweet  Yesterday, Pentagon officials claimed the president has authorization to pursue war without limits of time or space, saying the Authorization of Use of Military Force passed in 2001 means war could go on, as Dick Cheney said, "for generations."

Boston Suspect’s Writing on the Wall

Editor Note: Hiding and near death, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev reportedly scrawled on the inside of a boat that he did what he did to avenge innocent Muslims killed by U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a rare look at the why behind “terrorism."

By Ray McGovern

Quick, somebody tell CIA Director John Brennan about the handwriting on the inside wall of the boat in which Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hiding before Boston-area police riddled it and him with bullets. Tell Brennan that Tsarnaev’s note is in plain English and that it needs neither translation nor interpretation in solving the mystery: “why do they hate us?”

Serious escalation of state-terrorism has been reported in the last few days following the debacle of Bahrain’s dictator at the Ascot race course in London on Saturday 11th May . Many people have been arrested; most of them subjected to severe torture on the spots where they were detained. Harsh prison sentences have been passed against scores of Bahrainis. At least five people have been imprisoned for anti-regime tweets. Use of chemical gases has also been intensified, and many casualties reported in various parts of the country.

By Linn Washington, Jr.

Federal authorities publicly plot encouraging bounty hunters to kidnap a fugitive black radical from a foreign country for return to prison in the U.S. to achieve long-delayed justice.

This sounds like the FBI action on May 2, 2013 in placing former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur on its “Most Wanted Terrorists” list – the first female to have that dubious distinction.

Stop and Frisk: NYPD Racial Profiling

by Stephen Lendman

The Fourth Amendment states: 

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Israel Threatens More Syrian Attacks

by Stephen Lendman

May 15 is Nakba Day. It follows Israel's May 14 Independence Day. This year was no exception. 

Clashes erupted across the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel confronts peaceful demonstrations violently. Fundamental human rights are spurned. Rogue governments operate that way.

by Debra Sweet          If you haven't signed and donated to publish the Close Guantanamo ad in The New York Times, please do so now & make it count DOUBLE: we get matching funds from a generous donor up to $5,000 by noon Friday, May 17.

Obama: Syrian peace talks may yield results, No magic formula to end the civil war - The Hill

Obama says U.S. won't act alone on chemical weapons in Syria - latimes.com

VIDEO: Obama and Erdogan: We both agree that Assad needs to go. He needs to transfer power to a transitional body - YouTube

VIDEO: Obama: I preserve the options of taking additional steps on Syria—both diplomatic and military - www.foxreno.com

Russia: Iran should take part in Syria conference - AFP

West wants to limit participants of coming conference on Syria, to virtually determine result: Lavrov - The Voice of Russia

Lavrov says Russia will send top air-defense system S-300 to Assad - The Times of Israel

Russian warships enter Mediterranean to form permanent task force - RT News

Russia wary of attacks by rebels returning from Syria - Reuters

VIDEO: Lavrov wants all Syrian voices at the table, barring terrorists - Ruptly

EU to block arming of Syrian rebels to give a US-Russian peace initiative time to work - Telegraph

In UN General  Assembly on Syria, 107 Votes Is "Big Loss for Qatar" - Inner City Press

MAP: How the world voted on a U.N. resolution on Syria - washingtonpost.com

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Graph on casualty levels in Syria: there is a definite correlation between the level of monthly casualties and the shipping in of arms to the rebels (GRAPH) - LiveLeak.com

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: 41.000 Alawites killed in Syria, between 34-43 percent of all dead although Alawites only make up 10 percent of the population - abna

Syria Execution Video: Jabhat Al Nusra Jihadists Kill Regime Supporters (VIDEO) - Huffington Post

Syrian troops push back rebels who stormed central prison in northern city of Aleppo - The Washington Post

Syrian rebels launch offensive in south to reverse losses - Reuters

Report: Iran told Nasrallah to prevent Assad downfall 'at all costs' - Ynetnews

CIA head visits Israel to discuss Syria, Iran's nuclear program - Haaretz Daily Newspaper

US sets sanctions on 4 ministers in Assad's government, leader of al-Nusra - Fox News

Iraqi forces bust cell with ties to Jabhat al-Nusra - Al-Shorfa

Syria erects earth mounds along border with Lebanon - THE DAILY STAR

VIDEO: When I met the Syrian rebel who 'ate soldier's heart' - Channel 4 News

VIDEO: Video Of An Unknown Object Reportedly Dropped From A Helicopter During The Alleged Chemical Attack In Saraqeb, Idlid - Brown Moses Blog

To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com

What are you waiting for
It's time to start a world war
Let's board all the ships
And sail to the apocalypse
I can see it in your eye
Today's a perfect day to die
You've been hypnotized
If you think you are civilized

It's been calling me
I saw the trailer on T.V.
Giant plumes of smoke and light
It looked like Disneyland at night
I'd burn that little town and take those evil doers down
Roll out your biggest hearse
Cause I'm nuking the whole universe

I can see you there
Hiding in your underwear
I see your child's eyes
His dying body's drawing flies
You can't control your lungs
Just shaky prayers in foreign tongues
We had a moment there
Before your soul took to the air

Chorus:

Call it what you want
It's still war
Call it what you want
It don't matter anymore
Call it what you want
The verdicts in
Call it what you want
It's the way it's always been

Verse:

Men fire all your guns
We're dropping fifty megatons
Let's load all the jets
And help the banks pay off their debts
A thousand years of light
Wouldn't cure our appetite
A hundred million stars
Wouldn't quench this thirst of ours

And we walk into the room
We see the happy family
And the bride and groom
And you're all just eating cake
We slither in like a rattlesnake
Some run and some stand still
That's our favorite kind of kill
But you just smiled at me
Cause you know it was meant to be

Chorus:

Call it what you want
It's still war
Call it what you want
It don't matter anymore
Call it what you want
The verdict's in
Call it what you want
It's the way it's always been