Republicans Lead Opposition to War on Syria
Americans alternate in their pretended opposition to mass-murder, depending on the brand name attached to their president. When Bush was in the White House, Democrats filled the streets against an attack on Iraq. With Obama in the White House, the usual anti-war folks are nearly comatose, but Republican columnists like Cal Thomas and idiots like Sarah Palin are against arming and bombing in Syria. And we're starting to see local Republicans rise up in pretended opposition to warmaking:
Anti-war rally to be held at Oklahoma State Capitol
OKLAHOMA CITY – A state lawmaker will lead an anti-war rally on the south steps of the Oklahoma State Capitol at 7 p.m. Friday, July 12. The public is invited.
The rally’s theme is “Not Our War!” and will be held to reflect the views of those who oppose U.S. intervention in the Syrian civil war, state Rep. Paul Wesselhöft said.
“The U.S. has no political or moral obligation to intervene in Syria’s intractable civil war. It’s none of our business,” said Wesselhöft, R-Moore. “Our involvement in shipping arms to the Syrian rebels commits us to a proxy war with Russia. This is not good, not wise, not acceptable, so we object.”
Wesselhöft said the rally will be bipartisan in nature. Musical entertainment will precede the speakers from 6-7 p.m. There will be co-sponsors representing both the left and right political spectrum. Each spectrum will be given equal time, he said. Wesselhöft hopes the Oklahoma rally will spark similar events in other state capitols and Washington, D.C.
“I was working on a significant project this summer and did not want to lead an anti-war rally,” he said. “I was hoping the President would not involve America in another country’s civil war, but we are now arming the rebels.
This rally will be a single-issue event on our involvement in the Syrian civil war. It will not be about other issues supported or opposed by the President. We will be united, regardless of political party, in one clear message to our government: ‘Syria is NOT OUR WAR!’”
Iran to send 4,000 troops to aid President Assad forces in Syria
World Exclusive: US urges UK and France to join in supplying arms to Syrian rebels as MPs fear that UK will be drawn into growing conflict
By Robert Fisk, the Independent
Washington’s decision to arm Syria’s Sunni Muslim rebels has plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the Islamic Middle East, entering a struggle that now dwarfs the Arab revolutions which overthrew dictatorships across the region.
Putin at G8
Putin Alone at G8
by Stephen Lendman
On June 17, G8 leaders began two days of talks in Northern Ireland. Seven nations want escalated war on Syria. Putin's alone. He's an outlier for peaceful conflict resolution.
Obama's hands are bloodrenched. He bears full responsibility for ravaging Syria. It's been ongoing since early 2011. It was planned many years earlier.
High Level Opposition to Escalating Syria's Conflict
High Level Opposition to Escalating Syria's Conflict
by Stephen Lendman
Dozens of responsible world leaders oppose Washington's war on Syria. They do so for good reason. They want peaceful conflict resolution. They're against greater escalation. Few say so publicly.
On May 15, the UN General Assembly adopted an anti-Assad resolution. It's non-binding. It was Arab League-led. Washington co-sponsored it. It followed four others since 2011.
Syria News June 19
VIDEO: Obama on Syria in interview on Charlie Rose of PBS - CBS News
Putin: Russia won't rule out new arms supplies to Syria's Assad - AFP
Pentagon Shoots Down Kerry’s Syria Airstrike Plan - Bloomberg
Consideration of Syria no-fly zone relies on Iraq experience - Navy Times
France's Hollande open to Iranian presence at Syria talks - Alarabiya.net
UK's Cameron wants Syria peace plan, with or without Russia - Yahoo! News
Lavrov Says Syria Talks Must Not imply 'Capitulation' of Regime - Naharnet
Syria rebels assail G-8 leaders on Syria - usatoday
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Saudi Arabia, France sending Syria rebels anti-aircraft guns: Der Spiegel - Al Akhbar English
Iran reportedly preparing to send 4,000 troops into Syria - Fox News
Iran Denies Plans to Send Troops to Help Syria’s Assad - RIA Novosti
Syria Counts on $1 Billion Iran Fund to Support Pound - Bloomberg
Analysis: Saudi role in Syria driven by fear of Shi'ite 'full moon' - Reuters
Hezbollah leader's brother killed in Syria clashes - The Times of Israel
4 Lebanese Shiites Killed In Ambush Near Syria -huffingtonpost.com
Hamas to Hizbullah: Leave Syria, Fight Israel - Israel National News
Iraq Moves Troops To Syrian Border - Al-Monitor
Egypt seen to give nod toward jihadis on Syria - Yahoo! News
The adventures of a Libyan weapons dealer in Syria - Reuters
Private money pours into Syrian conflict as donors pick sides - The Japan Times
Qatar Red Crescent Funds Syrian Rebel Arms - Al Akhbar English
Qatar shares edge down; Syria fears weigh on most markets - Gulf Times
U.A.E. Shares Retreat as Syria Civil War Concern Grips Region - Bloomberg
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Full transcript of Assad interview to the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper- SANA
Assad denounces chemical arms claim as ‘lies’ – FAZ : The Voice of Russia
Defected Syrian general will be conduit for U.S. military aid to rebels - The Washington Post
Qaeda-linked militants blow up Shiite hall in Syria - AFP
VIDEO: The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham have exploded a Muslim Shi'i place of worship - YouTube
Is Anyone Counting the Guns in Syria? - psmag.com
Syrian fighters funded in part by jizya - Money Jihad
In civil war, Syria's Kurds search for place but increasingly clash with Arab rebels - Fox News
VIDEO: FSA Fighters Insulting Kurdish Flag - YouTube
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Turkey's Defiant PM Says Police to Get More Power - ABC News
Dozens held in Turkey, silent protester goes viral - Reuters
POLL: Poll shows Erdogan's popularity has taken a hit. Could he lose his mandate? - CSMonitor.com
POLL: Most Turks Do Not Support Erdogan's Syria Policy - Al-Monitor
Turkish unions march in support of Istanbul protesters - latimes.com
Anti-Government Protests In Turkey Reach Syrian Border (RADIO) - KGOU
Syrians protest in Damascus backing Turkey demos - THE DAILY STAR
VIDEO: Istanbul: silent standing protest shut down by police - guardian.co.uk
VIDEO: Mayhem in Istanbul hotel as police target protesters seeking rufuge - CBS News
To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com
The Stunning Illogic of The Times: Spy on Us All so We Won’t Lose Our Freedom
By Dave Lindorff
So New York Times columnist Tom Friedman and former Times executive editor Bill Keller are both saying that the massive NSA spying program on all Americans’ communications is a needed thing because if they don’t do it, then maybe there could be another major terrorist strike on the US, and democracy would be erased in the US.
It's the Ownership
If you're like me you've read several books that list inspiring examples of worker owned businesses and co-ops, suggesting that expanding on such models might begin to right the wrongs of an incredibly unequal society that is growing even more unequal by the day.
The best such collection I've found is in a new book by Gar Alperovitz called What Then Must We Do? This book also offers a powerful argument that radical change is needed, albeit an argument with some possible flaws. First the inspiring examples:
Workers own and run factories in Cleveland, Atlanta, Washington DC, Amarillo, and many other cities. Labor unions that once opposed worker ownership, including the Steelworkers and several others, now create worker-owned companies. Forty percent of Americans are members of cooperatives, including credit unions. People moved hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, from large banks to credit unions and small banks in 2011 and 2012. (That should continue!) Then there are community development corporations and land trusts, alive and thriving. There are even corporations redesigned, and labeled B Corps, chartered under new laws in 12 states to allow them to legally pursue the social good as well as profits.
Employee stock ownership plans make U.S. workers owners of their businesses in great numbers -- three million more than are members of unions in the private sector. Federal tax incentives (don't tell Congress!) encourage business owners to sell to their employees. Worker-owned firms are becoming more common. They are also more profitable than other similar companies.
It occurs to me that we need a Union-Label type operation to label and catalog the products of worker-owned companies so that we can put our support there.
Local governments are investing in local businesses and land development. A quarter of U.S. electricity comes from publicly owned co-ops. These power companies are more efficient and tend to be greener. The model is being followed by public broadband service. Proposals that meet the textbook definition of socialism are alive and growing in red and blue states alike, and at the local and state levels.
This matters because the national government in the United States is so thoroughly corrupted. I'm not sure Alperovitz ever directly answers the question of how a national plutocracy will be prevented from halting local and state progress on the ownership question, as it has halted local and state progress on other matters. If the trend toward democratizing ownership is happening under the radar, how can it possibly be kept there while succeeding on the necessary scale? If this approach to economic justice is somehow more inherently "American" than other more foreign ideas, how exactly does that protect it? Weren't family farms and free elections and the Fourth Amendment deemed very American at one point too? Alperovitz recommends a state-by-state approach to single-payer healthcare, but the refusal of California legislators to enact it has come at the bidding of those in Washington. None of which is to suggest that Alperovitz is wrong to promote this strategy -- just that it may be very difficult, and some other strategies may help too.
Alperovitz frames his discussion within an understanding of serious systemic failure. Persistent long-term trends toward income and wealth inequality, monopolized corporate power, mass incarceration, and environmental devastation churn ahead in the face of elections, activism, lobbying, and reform legislation, not to mention flip-flopping between Republican and Democratic so-called "leadership." Alperovitz paints these as even longer term trends than we often suppose by dismissing the gains of the middle of the 20th century as an aberration produced by the Great Depression and World War II, and as gains that could not have come without a large labor movement -- something he now deems virtually impossible.
Most activist groups, Alperovitz points out, react to cuts in public services by demanding no cuts. This is purely defensive. Alperovitz acknowledges that some also advocate for progressive taxation, but deems this "obviously inadequate" although the obviousness of its inadequacy is not apparent to me, except in the sense that (just like the worker-ownership model) it hasn't succeeded yet on a major scale. Yes, the plutocrats buy the elections. The system is rigged against tax reform. But the goal of advancing the taxation (and elimination) of billionaires as power is gradually obtained seems critical.
Alperovitz seems at times to buy into the notion that there just isn't enough money around, even if the billionaires were to be taxed at 90 percent. But this is wrong, of course. The nation is rolling in money, and the money is piled up in the hands of several hundred people.
It's somewhere else as well, somewhere Alperovitz doesn't propose to look for it. President Obama's proposed budget for 2014 devotes 57% of discretionary spending to an illegal, immoral, counterproductive, and economically destructive operation known as war and preparation for war. While Alperovitz suggests that World War III could save the U.S. economy (were a new world war possible, which he says it isn't), economists say military spending as it exists does less for the economy than other public spending and even less than tax cuts for working people; that is to say, it is worse than nothing.
Alperovitz seems unaware that roughly half of military spending is outside the Pentagon, in Homeland Security, in the CIA, in the State Department, in the Energy Department, etc. So he uses the Pentagon budget alone to argue that military spending is low as a percentage of GDP. This does not of course make it low in terms of actual dollars or as a percentage of global military spending or as a percentage of public spending in the United States. Alperovitz believes there's little money for spending on human needs, but seems not to notice where 57% of discretionary spending is going.
While Alperovitz raises the topic of healthcare because it takes up, he says, 20 percent of GDP, the war machine that swallows 8 or 9 percent of GDP from U.S. government purchases alone (U.S. companies also dominating international weapons sales) gets no consideration. Leo Tolstoy, from whom the book's title is borrowed, would have noticed the existence of the military industrial complex. He would have considered the possibility of economic conversion. Connecticut created a commission this month to pursue conversion from war to peace manufacturing. I suspect Alperovitz would like that model if he took a look at it.
So, here's where I come down. We should be pursuing everything Alperovitz recommends, and then some. We should create worker ownership, tax the rich, cut the military, invest in our society, and act strategically at the local, state, and national levels. We should take very seriously long-term structural failures and stop imagining that another election will fix anything by itself. And we should, as Alperovitz wisely recommends, be preparing the ground for the best possible activism when a moment of greater possibilities arrives, or when we have succeeded in creating it.
An appeal from Afghanistan to whistle-blow on war
From Dr. Hakim and the Afghan Peace Volunteers
Recognition that 95 million human beings were killed in World War I and II has helped the people of the world understand that the method of war is not cost-effective. An awakened world hoped the United Nations could, as determined in the UN Charter, eventually ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’.
The scourge of war in Afghanistan continues, with the United Nations reporting that more than 3,000 Afghan civilians have been killed and wounded in the first five months of this year, a fifth of whom were Afghan children. So, ordinary people should seize opportunities to tell the truth about war.
The 75,000 Afghan War Logs, which Bradley Manning gave Wikileaks to ‘help document the true cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan’, can help all of us evaluate whether the Afghan war is cost-effective. Bradley Manning had also handed Wikileaks a video of the Farah/Granai massacre which occurred in May of 2009, in which 86 to 147 Afghan civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in an airstrike. We can read about the Farah/Granai massacre here and here .
The Afghan Peace Volunteers ask for the Farah/Granai massacre video to be released.
These records report the truths about war, and reveal an obsession among those few people in power to use war in achieving their goals. Bradley Manning said, “In attempting to conduct counter-terrorism or CT and counter-insurgency COIN operations we became obsessed with capturing and killing human targets on lists…”
How many more documents revealing loss of innocent life are needed to determine that war should be banned, that it should not even be a last resort of ‘defence’?
All weapons, not only nuclear weapons, should be banned. A safe life and secure work environment without weapons is very possible even in Afghanistan. Consider, for instance, that the Emergency Surgical Centres in Afghanistan operate all their health facilities without armed protection and that Dr. Ramazon Bashardost, the third-placed candidate in Afghanistan’s 2009 Presidential elections, has no armed bodyguards.
We human beings are capable of living together without war. Billions of human beings all over the world live daily without killing one another, even when dealing with the most troubled or difficult of family members.
We are capable of an impossible love.
We can establish global norms of resolving all our problems through understanding and dialogue, and exclude war from the negotiation table. To do so, we should exclude from the UN charter the use of war as a last resort. We should disband the UN ‘Security’ Council.
Of course, accomplishing these actions hinges on us, on climate change citizens, Arab Spring citizens, Occupy citizens and the ‘awakening’ citizens of every country to free ourselves from the unequal dominance of corporate governments with their laws and weapons of self-interest.
They won’t free Bradley Manning. We need to free Bradley Manning.
They won’t support Edward Snowden. We need to support Edward Snowden.
They won’t free us. We need to free ourselves.
In Bradley Manning’s internal and better world, he is free! He testified, “I felt I had accomplished something that allowed me to have a clear conscience based upon what I had seen and read about and knew were happening in both Iraq and Afghanistan every day.”
Please take some time to listen to these ‘everyday’ tragedies in Afghanistan.
Please take some time to read and watch the thoughts of the Afghan Peace Volunteers below. Rather than chant the dirges of death, we want to sing out life-giving messages.
Then, without any trace of force, join us in asking for release of the ‘Farah/Granai massacre’ video.
From Afghanistan, the Afghan Peace Volunteers thank Bradley Manning
Abdul Ali
I wish to share the pain of those killed in the Farah massacre, so I request Wikileaks to release the video. Thank you, Bradley, for your courage and sense of human responsibility in passing on this video. I support you!
Faiz Ahmad
As a human being and an Afghan citizen, I want to know the truth so that such violent tragedies will never be repeated again. It will show us how much we need the way of non-violence.
Abdulhai
We need to learn that killing, whether by the Taliban or the US/NATO forces, is not acceptable and cannot solve any problem. At this time, Bradley Manning needs us, and we need one another.
Raz Mohammad
It should be clear to the people how, for profit and power, groups like the Taliban and the US/NATO forces, kill without accountability. We want the voices of the people, like that of Bradley Manning, to be heard. We especially want the voices of children to be heard, including the voices of children who have been killed. We want their voices to haunt us. We should give a prize of conscience to Bradley Manning.
Basir Bita
The transparency and conscience that Bradley Manning and Wikileaks seek is so desperately needed in Afghanistan, in the context of governments and power-mongers openly and secretly betraying the people every day.
Barath Khan
We ask for the video of the Farah strike to be published so that the world will know how governments and all warring groups involved in the Afghan conflict have strategies and policies which go against the people, which kill the people. We want the governments and warring groups to be ashamed of their actions. Why should the world or any court of justice condemn and punish those who reveal truths?
Ghulam Hussein
Bradley has delivered truths which the world needs. We are against violence and killing by the Taliban and other Afghan war groups. We are also against violence and killing by the Afghan and U.S./NATO governments. Human beings were not born to abuse, betray or kill one another, but to learn to live together. We were not born to live selfishly, but to live for one another. If human beings want, we can live without war.
The Afghan Peace Volunteers in the video: “Thank you Bradley Manning”
Our sleeping conscience, awake!
Truth is not subject to the baton of the courts.
We are the Afghan Peace Volunteers.
According to the 19th Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states the right to freedom of expression, we want Bradley Manning to be free!
Truth is like the sun that cannot always be hidden by the clouds.
Thank you Bradley Manning!
Stopping Indefinite Detention: Guantanamo & Bagram
A multi-media presentation with an ongoing slide show of art against torture.
Eleven years since the building of the US prison at Guantánamo, and nine years after disclosures of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, US policy has settled into de facto indefinite detention of thousands. Included in the Democratic Party talking points of 2008 was a call to close Guantánamo; in 2012 they did not discuss it. Meanwhile, the largest body of prisoners held without the right to habeas corpus is in the US prison at Bagram, Afghanistan. The majority of prisoners at Guantánamo began a hunger strike in Feburary 2013 as a desperate call for public attention, as conditions for them have worsened under Obama.
U.S. 'backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad's regime'
- Leaked emails from defense contractor refers to chemical weapons saying 'the idea is approved by Washington'
- Obama issued warning to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that use of chemical warfare was 'totally unacceptable'
By Louise Boyle
Leaked emails have allegedly proved that the White House gave the green light to a chemical weapons attack in Syria that could be blamed on Assad's regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country.
A report released on Monday contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence where a scheme 'approved by Washington' is outlined explaining that Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons.
Barack Obama made it clear to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that the U.S. would not tolerate Syria using chemical weapons against its own people.
Scroll down for video
War games: An explosion in the Syrian city of Homs last month. It has been now been suggested that the U.S. backed the use of chemical weapons to spur international military intervention
According to Infowars.com, the December 25 email was sent from Britam's Business Development Director David Goulding to company founder Philip Doughty.
It reads: 'Phil... We’ve got a new offer. It’s about Syria again. Qataris propose an attractive deal and swear that the idea is approved by Washington.
'We’ll have to deliver a CW to Homs, a Soviet origin g-shell from Libya similar to those that Assad should have.
'They want us to deploy our Ukrainian personnel that should speak Russian and make a video record.
'Frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea but the sums proposed are enormous. Your opinion?
'Kind regards, David.'
Britam Defence had not yet returned a request for comment to MailOnline.
Lawless NSA Global Spying
Lawless NSA Global Spying
by Stephen Lendman
NSA is one of 16 known US spy agencies. Perhaps others operate secretly. Black budgets conceal what's spent. Amounts are enormous. They're unconscionable.
Used responsibly, they'd relieve hunger, shelter the homeless, heal the sick, and educate young people hungry for knowledge.
Syria and Iran: In America's Crosshairs
Syria and Iran: In America's Crosshairs
by Stephen Lendman
Obama's on a fast track toward tyranny. He's heading for greater intervention against Syria. Ravaging the country entirely is planned. At issue is establishing another pro-Western vassal state.
Drones for Christ
by David Swanson | July 2013
How Jerry Falwell's Liberty U.—the world's largest Christian university—became an evangelist for drone warfare.
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY in Lynchburg, Va., was founded by televangelist Jerry Falwell. Its publications carry the slogan “Training Champions for Christ since 1971.” Some of those champions are now being trained to pilot armed drones, and others to pilot more traditional aircraft, in U.S. wars. For Christ. Liberty bills itself as “one of America’s top military-friendly schools.” It trains chaplains for the various branches of the military. And it trains pilots in its School of Aeronautics (SOA)—pilots who go up in planes and drone pilots who sit behind desks wearing pilot suits. The SOA, with more than 600 students, is not seen on campus, as it has recently moved to a building adjacent to Lynchburg Regional Airport. Liberty’s campus looks new and attractive, large enough for some 12,000 students, swarming with blue campus buses, and heavy on sports facilities for the Liberty Flames. A campus bookstore prominently displays Resilient Warriors, a book by Associate Vice President for Military Outreach Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Robert F. Dees. There’s new construction everywhere you look: a $50 million library, a baseball stadium, new dorms, a tiny year-round artificial ski slope on the top of a hill. In fact, Liberty is sitting on more than $1 billion in net assets. The major source of Liberty’s money is online education. There are some 60,000 Liberty students you don’t see on campus, because they study via the internet. They also make Liberty the largest university in Virginia, the fourth largest online university anywhere, and the largest Christian university in the world. More than 23,000 online students are in the military—twice as many as students who live on campus. Liberty offers extra financial support to veterans and those on active duty, allowing them to be credited for knowledge learned in the military and to study online from a war zone. Liberty has been turning out “Christ-centered aviators” for a decade. In fall 2011, Liberty added a concentration in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS, aka drones), making it one of the first handful of schools to do this. Now at least 14 universities and colleges in the U.S. have permits from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly drones, and many institutions, including community colleges, offer drone training. If one chooses to concentrate studies on piloting drones, the load will include a half dozen courses on “intelligence.” Liberty students can also pick up a minor in strategic intelligence and take courses in terrorism and counterterrorism. (Liberty’s school of government brags that Newt Gingrich helped develop its course on “American exceptionalism.”)
TSA screener slut-shames 15-year-old girl, by Sommer Gentry
Mark Fraunfelder’s 15-year-old daughter was at LAX yesterday, trying to board a flight with a group of other students on a trip to visit some colleges. Unfortunately, the U.S. government had decided ahead of time to hire tens of thousands of strangers to intimidate and abuse her (and others) as they blocked the girl’s safe passage to her airplane.
Read the rest at TSA News.
Corporate America Loves Jason Furman
Corporate America Loves Jason Furman
by Stephen Lendman
Key Obama officials comprise a virtual rogues gallery of scoundrels. On June 10, he nominated Jason Furman to replace Alan Krueger. He'll serve as White House Council of Economic Advisors chairman.
He was Clinton's Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the National Economic Council. He began advising Obama in 2008.
British Eavesdropping: How Awkward at High Tea
UK Grapples with Spying Disclosure
Editor Note: British authorities are scrambling to justify how they – while hosting a global economic summit in 2009 – spied on their guests with help from America’s National Security Agency. Some UK media outlets seem a little spooked themselves in getting commentary on the incident.
By Ray McGovern
How inconvenient for Great Britain. Just as world leaders of the G-8 countries gather for a meeting in Northern Ireland, The Guardian front-pages the news that the last time they got together in territory controlled by the UK, the British subjected them to the kind of intrusive eavesdropping that most folks still think is reserved for “suspected terrorists” or “foreign enemies.”
David Brooks, Tom Friedman, Bill Keller Wish Snowden Had Just Followed Orders
By Norman Solomon
Edward Snowden’s disclosures, the New York Times reported on Sunday, “have renewed a longstanding concern: that young Internet aficionados whose skills the agencies need for counterterrorism and cyberdefense sometimes bring an anti-authority spirit that does not fit the security bureaucracy.”
Agencies like the NSA and CIA -- and private contractors like Booz Allen -- can’t be sure that all employees will obey the rules without interference from their own idealism. This is a basic dilemma for the warfare/surveillance state, which must hire and retain a huge pool of young talent to service the digital innards of a growing Big Brother.
Charlottesville to Be a Stop on Coast-to-Coast Bike Ride for Peace Led by Cindy Sheehan
An open-to-the-public pot-luck dinner will be held at 6 pm, followed by remarks from Cindy at 7, at Random Row Books in Charlottesville on June 25th.
Sign up here: https://www.facebook.com/events/170687569764624
WHAT: Gold Star Mother and "peace mom" Cindy Sheehan will lead a Tour de Peace bike ride across the United States from the grave of her son Casey in Vacaville, Calif., to Washington, D.C., following the mother road, historic Route 66 to Chicago, and other roads from there on to D.C. Bicyclers will join in for all or part of the tour, which will include public events organized by local groups along the way.
Complete route: http://tourdepeace.org/the-route.html
WHEN: The tour began on April 4, 2013, nine years after Casey Sheehan was killed in Iraq, and 45 years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was killed in Memphis. It will conclude on July 3, 2013, with a ride from Arlington National Cemetery to the White House.
WHY: This August will mark 8 years since Cindy Sheehan began a widely reported protest at then-President George W. Bush's "ranch" in Crawford, Texas, demanding to know what the "noble cause" was for which Bush claimed Americans were dying in Iraq. Neither Bush nor President Obama has yet offered a justification for a global war now in its 12th year. The Tour de Peace will carry with it these demands:
To end wars,
To end immunity for U.S. war crimes,
To end suppression of our civil rights,
To end the use of fossil fuels,
To end persecution of whistleblowers,
To end partisan apathy and inaction.
Watch the trailer: http://youtu.be/2uBctq4dzss
Occupy Gezi Through Eyes of OWS
BY CARL GIBSON
http://www.occupy.com/article/
![[]](http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/styles/slide_narrow/public/field/image/maxresdefault_1.jpg?itok=x03TBPij)
As the Occupy Gezi movement picks up steam In Turkey, mothers of protesters have formed a human chain around the protests blocking police from attacking their sons and daughters. Justin Wedes, one of the earliest organizers and participants of Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park, was in Istanbul last week taking part in the protests. Justin is an administrator of the @OccupyWallStNYC twitter account and was one of the first activists arrested by the NYPD at the Liberty Square occupation in 2011. I spoke with him about his experience in Istanbul.
CARL GIBSON: So what was the scene when you got off the plane and left the airport? Describe what you saw when you made it to the square.
JUSTIN WEDES: When I got to downtown Istanbul, the police were retreating from Gezi Park. They had been attacking the protesters for 2 or 3 days with tear gas and water cannons, but the protesters held fast. As police were leaving, the park and the square were being flooded with more people. The park itself was very festive and joyous after the police left. It was hard to tell who was partying and who was protesting. It was a beautiful, autonomous zone.![[]](http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/media_crop/791/public/occupy-turkey-occupy-gezi-animal.jpg)
CG: I’ve heard some people say that this is more similar to Tahrir Square than it is to Zuccotti Park. Having been one of the original members of Occupy Wall Street from day one, what’s your response to that?
Hassan Rohani: Iran's President-Elect
Hassan Rohani: Iran's President-Elect
by Stephen Lendman
It's official. Iran's Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar announced it. Rohani won 50.7% of 36.7 million votes cast.
Six candidates competed. Principlist Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf finished second. He received one-third of Rohani's total.
Netanyahu Falsely Says Iran Plans Another Holocaust
Netanyahu Falsely Says Iran Plans Another Holocaust
by Stephen Lendman
He said it before Iran's June 14 election. He hasn't changed his mind. More on that below.
Netanyahu reflects Israeli fascism. He's hardline, unstable, unscrupulous and dangerous. He prioritizes conflict and instability.
A Cure for War – With Limitations.
A Cure for War – With Limitations.
by Erin Niemela
Earlier this week I wrote an editorial proposing a 28th constitutional amendment to abolish war. The NSA scandal, I argue, is tied to the more pervasive problem of violent foreign (and domestic) policy, and we’ll continue to see government abuses so long as war and inter-state military violence are the acceptable choices for conflict management. David Swanson, author of the brilliant history, “When the World Outlawed War,” thoughtfully responded to my plea by urging us to recall and reignite the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, an existing international pact renouncing war signed and ratified by the US president and Senate.
I agree with Mr. Swanson that any efforts to end war should point to existing law, and we agree that abolishing war is possible and necessary. However, the Kellogg-Briand Pact is not without its limitations, and a fresh, people-driven constitutional amendment could both address those limitations and offer current, culturally relevant and legally dispositive reinforcement.
Just wondering... Is Naomi Wolf Working for the NSA?
By Dave Lindorff
I hate to do this, but I feel obligated to share, as the story unfolds, my creeping concern that the writer Naomi Wolf is not whom she purports to be, and that her motive in writing an article on her public Facebook page speculating about whether National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden might actually be still working for the NSA, could be to support the government’s effort to destroy him.
The Chemical Weapons Hoax
The Chemical Weapons Hoax
by Stephen Lendman
Greater US intervention in Syria looms. Manufactured threats facilitate doing so. Replacing Assad with puppet leadership is planned. Independent governments aren't tolerated. More on that below.
Fact: Washington bears full responsibility for Middle East/North Africa/Central Asian wars. Resource control is prioritized. So is imperial dominance to Russian and Chinese borders.
One-Sided Anti-Syrian Human Rights Council Resolution
One-Sided Anti-Syrian Human Rights Council Resolution
by Stephen Lendman
HRC mocks human rights, It systematically spurns them. It's a de facto US imperial tool. It defiles its own mandate. It does so lawlessly. It does it unapologetically.
HRC was established to strengthen "the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them."
Syria News June 16
Chemical weapons experts still skeptical about U.S. claim that Syria used sarin - McClatchy
U.S. missiles, jets to stay in Jordan as Syria crisis rages - Yahoo! News
The Syrian War: Israel and U.S. Coordinating How to Target Assad’s Arsenal - TIME.com
Kerry: Syria's use of chemical weapons jeopardizes political solution - Haaretz Daily Newspaper
G8 Summit: David Cameron pushes for no-fly zone over Syria - The Independent
Mursi cuts Egypt's Syria ties, backs no-fly zone - Yahoo! News
Russia says illegal to impose Syria no-fly zone from Jordan - Yahoo! News
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Getting U.S. weapons to Syria rebels will take weeks - latimes.com
Syrian troops capture Damascus suburb near airport, days after attack on the facility - Fox News
Al-Qaeda in Iraq rejects Zawahiri ruling on Nusra - AFP
Nusra Militants Kill Young Man Accused of Theft by Amputating Hand, Foot in Syria's Aleppo - abna.ir
Moscow blasts UNHRC's 'Hezbollah-focused' resolution on Syria - RT Russian politics
Russian Laurov stresses Syria Kurds should attend in Geneva 2 - Kurdpress News Aganecy
VIDEO: Kurdish YPG forces in Afrin against the FSA - LiveLeak.com
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Qatar: State Sponsor of International Terrorism - Oriental Review thru Money Jihad
Saudi Arabian Shares Drop Most in Two Years on Syria Escalation - Bloomberg
Saudi king flies home early as Syria war intensifies - zeenews
Turkish riot police storm Istanbul park to end protests after Erdogan ultimatum - Reuters
Mother of Turkish protester killed in Ankara: 'Erdogan must resign' - Telegraph
To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com
