War Is A Crime .org

Venezuela: Post-Election Sour Grapes

by Stephen Lendman

Throughout his tenure, America's scoundrel media vilified Chavez relentlessly. They did so straightaway. 

After his December 1998 election, New York Times Latin American correspondent Larry Roher, called him a "populist demagogue, an authoritarian….caudillo (strongman)." He lied saying so.

Muslim Brotherhood denies accusations group seeks to control opposition - The Washington Post

Muslim Brotherhood chief denies extremist control in Syria, Adding: “As far as I know, there is no extremism in Syria” - Alarabiya.net 

Syrian Coalition urges al-Nusra to stay within the ranks of nationalistic Syrians, to continue its efforts in fighting the Assad regime - businessweek.com 

Jabhat al-Nusra's planned Islamist state seems closer to becoming a reality than Ghassan Hitto’s interim government -al-monitor.com

Islamic State Declared in Syria, al-Nusra currently administers villages and cities through Islamist governance embodied in shari’a councils - Syria Comment

Syria's Jabhat al-Nusra seeks direct relationship with al-Qaeda leadership - Al-Shorfa

In Syria, al Qaeda-linked terrorists get credit for American aid - Foreign Policy

Syrian minister says UK and France are 'directly or indirectly' backing al-Qaida - The Guardian

Senator Rand Paul: Clinton said that a week before the murder of the US ambassador the US knew about a ship with lots of weapons sent from Libya to Syria rebels - newsday.co.zw

VIDEO: Pakistani Taliban training Jabhat -Al Nusrah fighters - LiveLeak.com

VIDEO: We are All Osama: Jabhat al-Nusra Celebrations for the Establishment of Islamic State in Syria - YouTube

VIDEO: Rebel leaders confess to crimes and being paid from abroad - LiveLeak.com

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Syria Rebels Confirm Shelling Bekaa in Lebanon, Hizbullah Buries More Fighters — Naharnet

Hermel residents in Lebanon threaten to hit back at Syria rebels - THE DAILY STAR

VIDEO: Video Shows Syrian Rebels Attacking Lebanese Territory - Brown Moses Blog

VIDEO: Hezbollah fighting in Syria - YouTube

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Assad forces try to consolidate gains in Maaret al-Numan - THE DAILY STAR

To die or leave? The Maronite Archbishop of Damascus talks about the unanswered dilemma of Syrian Christians - Fides News Agency

To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com

Veterans For Peace has just released this statement:

As a major U.S. peace organization of veterans, including members who served in the Korean War, Veterans For Peace (VFP) is deeply concerned about the increasing risk of another open conflict on the Korean Peninsula at this time.

CNN reported on Thursday that, "Developments in and around North Korea are so worrisome that they appear to have frightened Dick Cheney."  Bellicose rhetoric and maneuvers are indeed extremely worrisome, but it is important that we understand where the hostility is originating if we are going to be able to counter it.

North Korea has withdrawn from the armistice agreement that supposedly ended war over half a century ago.  North Korea is threatening military action.  Yet, North Korea spends some 0.8% of what the United States spends on war preparation.  The United States has the ability to obliterate North Korea.  The United States is not just threatening war on North Korea, but practicing it by dropping inert bombs on Korean soil.  And, of course, North Korea has not forgotten the United States' primary role in destroying its cities and killing millions of its people over a half century ago.

The United States this year, for the first time, has been using B-2 bombers and F-22 stealth jets in Korean air space in clear violation of the Korean War Armistice Agreement, which prohibits "introduction into Korea of reinforcing military personnel…(and) combat aircraft, armored vehicles, weapons, and ammunition." (Paragraph 13C & D)  North Korea's declaration that it, too, will abandon the armistice was not the first move in this dance of death.

That Korean War has never fully ended, not in terms of the elimination of hostilities, and not in terms of the withdrawal of foreign troops.  The United States has maintained operational control over the South Korean Army all of these years, an army of 650,000 troops today.

Last year President Barack Obama allowed South Korea to maintain cruise missiles with greater range than before, missiles now capable of hitting anywhere in the North.  Obama is also providing South Korea with drones for the purpose of spying on or attacking the North.  The Obama administration is, at the same time, promoting the construction of new and larger military bases around the region and in South Korea, including on Jeju Island -- the strategic purpose of which appears to be purely to "contain" (that is, provoke) China.  U.S. military "exercises" in the region are predictably provoking threats from the North to attack the U.S. bases from which its bombers are taking off.

Although U.S. officials have been accusing DPRK (North Korea) of "provocative acts," a careful review of events shows that the United States bears greater responsibility in provoking and threatening DPRK with new sanctions, military build-ups, and major war drills under the name "Key Resolve/Foal Eagle."

North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, according to the only American to talk to him, basketball player Dennis Rodman, said, "Tell President Obama to call me.  Because if we can talk, we can work this out."  Our Nobel Peace Laureate president responded by sending over stealth bombers to simulate nuclear bombing attacks.

This year's joint war game for U.S. and ROK (South Korean) troops is far more threatening in its scope, intensity, and length, than other recent exercises.  More than 10,000 U.S. and 200,000 ROK troops are taking part in the war drill for 2 months.  The United States is, for the first time, using multiple strategic assets, including B-52s, B-2 stealth bombers, and the nuclear attack submarine USS Cheyenne, to practice nuclear attacks on North Korea.  

This is in the context of a major U.S. military build-up in the region, a build-up being accelerated, using North Korean bellicosity as justification.  The United States has increased its troop strength in South Korea from 28,500 to 37,000; beefed up its so-called missile defense system around Korea and Japan; sent Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles to South Korea last fall; and moved 12 F-22 Raptors and 300 staff to Okinawaon January 14, 2013.

And this new militarization is in a historical context that is probably better understood by Koreans than by most Americans.  The U.S. decision in August 1945 to artificially divide an ancient homogenous Korea into two, upon the surrender of the Japanese; the subsequent U.S.-directed reign of terror in South Korea, 1945-1948; the U.S. sponsorship of a separate regime in South Korea in 1948; and then, consequently, the open Korean War, 1950-1953, which included U.S. carpet bombing of the country, killing at least 20% of the population, surely must rank as one of the cruelest tragedies of the Twentieth Century. This is virtually unknown history in the West, and today's issues relating to Korea cannot be understood without knowing about this diabolical assault on the Korean nation's rights to integrity, independence and self-determination.

To de-escalate the current danger of war on the Korean Peninsula, VFP urges the following steps:

1) The U.S., ROK and DPRK governments should immediately stop the current war drills in and around Korea, along with all military threats or cyber attacks against each other;

2) The U.S. should withdraw immediately all new U.S. troops and weapons brought into Korea in recent years; and remove all nuclear land- and sea-based missiles and weapons from Korea (and neighboring Japan, if any), and from the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and Sea of Japan.

3) The U.S. Secretary of State or a high-level special U.S. envoy should visit ROK, DPRK, and China to initiate a four-party talk to end the Korean War officially, and finally, with a peace treaty this year.

4) The U.S. public should reject and denounce fear-mongering about North Korea.

North Korea spends about 0.8% what the United States does and 29% of what South Korea does on its military.  North Korea is not a serious threat to the United States. 

But the United States is recklessly helping to provoke a new war on the Korean peninsula that could prove as horrific as the last one, or worse. 

The United Nations is playing a biased role similar to its role in the past, pressuring North Korea, but not the United States or South Korea, on human rights abuses.  There have been 9,000 missile launches since World War II.  North Koreahas had 4.  There have been 2,000 nuclear bomb tests.  North Koreahas had 3.  How many countries have been sanctioned by the United Nations over this? Only one: North Korea. 

The United States has no business being in Korea.  The United States has ignored the North's calls for a peace treaty since 1974.  It is time, at long last, to stop posturing for war and begin talking about peace.

Veterans For Peace also supports the Statement Opposing U.S.-South Korea Joint Military Exercises Key Resolve, Foal Eagle, as drafted by the Working Group for Peace and Demilitarization in Asia and the Pacific.  See:
http://warisacrime.org/content/statement-opposing-us-south-korea-joint-military-exercises-key-resolve-foal-eagle

Veterans For Peace is a national organization, founded in 1985 with approximately 5,000 members in 150 chapters located in every U.S. state and several countries.  It is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization recognized as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) by the United Nations, and is the only national veterans' organization calling for the abolishment of war.

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The case of the disappearing TSA Blog post continues.

Read about it at TSA News and stand up for civil liberties.

From Radio Free Europe:

Until not long ago the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) was on the list of the U.S. State Department's terrorist organizations. On April 11, that seemed like a distant memory as the group celebrated the opening of its Washington office just a block away from the White House, with tea and Iranian snacks.

The opening of the office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an umbrella group dominated by the MKO (aka the People's Mujahedin of Iran), was attended by several former U.S. officials, NCRI members, and their legal team, who described it as a "great day" for the Iranian people, for democracy in Iran, and for the values the United States cherishes. ...

stopwar.org.uk · 020 7561 9311 · 15 April 2013

1) Ground the Drones protest logistics
2) Fighting Drone wars behind our back

Ground the Drones
protest logistics

March route We will gather at 12pm on the West corner of South Park (look out for the Ground the Drones banner). At 12:30pm we will set off along the A15 to the site of Helen John's caravan protest against drones (the green symbol on the map) which is opposite RAF Waddington. The length of the route is 2.8 miles and we will arrive at approximately 2pm in time for a political rally. Transport By train If you are travelling to Lincoln by train, shuttle buses will run from Lincoln train station to South Park, the start of the march. When you arrive, look out for stewards in hi-viz jackets to find out when the next bus will leave. Please let us know if you plan to use the bus. They will leave at approximately 11:45am and about 12:15pm. Alternatively the number 1 bus goes from outside the Railway station at 11:05, 11:35 and 12:05 to Lincoln South Park. When the march and rally has finished at 4pm, the shuttle bus will return people to the train station. By coach or car Please ask your group's driver to drop you off at South Park, off Cross O'Cliff Hill, and park at the end of the route to the north of Sleaford Road (A15) where there are plenty of parking spaces. This will make it easy for your group to leave at 4pm.

2) Fighting Drone wars behind our back

Chris Nineham, vice-Chair of Stop the War, writes that the great advantage of drones for western governments is they can be used without domestic casualties and therefore, they hope, without the risk of popular opposition or protest.

RAF Waddington will soon be the control centre for British drone warfare. It may already be, we can't be sure.
The fact we don't know testifies to the secrecy that surrounds the operation of these remote control killing machines. Drones embody the sinister shift that has been taken in the West's wars post Iraq.

They blur the distinction between war and state execution, with no chance for public scrutiny.
Britain has been using drones in Afghanistan for some years. But by developing its drone capability, the British government is now stepping up its global ability to conduct arbitrary assassinations.

Official US language shows droes are normalizing such behaviour. There has been next to no public discussion about their use in Britain, but in the US drones are actualloy justified as precision weapons of international assassination. Their supporters say they are capable of surgically removing terrorist targets, so 'cleansing' weakened states of extremist leaders.

In a half hearted attempt to provide a legal framework, the Obama administration has claimed that drones are justified because they are used only against "specific senior operational leaders of al Qaida and associated forces" involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks who are plotting "imminent" violent attacks on Americans. The US is still at war against Al-Qaeda, the argument goes, so such lethal incursions into foreign territory are legal.

"It has to be a threat that is serious and not speculative," President Barack Obama said in a Sept. 6, 2012, interview with CNN. "It has to be a situation in which we can't capture the individual before they move forward on some sort of operational plot against the United States."
But the evidence is unchallengeable: this is nonsense. Recent reports suggest that just 1.5% of the estimated 3,100 that have been killed by US drones in Pakistan were identified by US officials as 'high-profile targets'. The US categorises victims as children, civilians, "high-profile," and "other." "The 'other" grey zone comprises males of fighting age.

The Obama administration assumes that these are legitimate targets even though there is no information as to their affiliation. But the Washington Post reported in February that most attacks now are "signature strikes," in which targets are selected based on suspicious patterns of activity and the identities of those who could be killed is not known. In 2012, the New York Times paraphrased a view they said was shared by several officials that "people in an area of known terrorist activity, or found with a top Qaeda operative, are probably up to no good."
Their crime in other words was to have been young, male and in the area.

But it's not just that fantasies are being peddled about drones' technical ability to single out their targets. Their strategic role is being obscured too. In reality drones are not used simply as surgical weapon to pre-empt a possible attack. Partly their adoption has been driven by the unpopularity and the manifest failure of the conventional wars that have been fought under the rubric of the war on terror over the last twelve years.

The great advantage of drones from the point of view of western governments is that, at least while the West has the technological edge over competitors, they can be used without domestic casualties and therefore, they hope, without the risk of popular opposition or protest.
Another advantage of drones is that they are a relatively cheap way of killing people, important at a time of spending cuts. They are a way of continuing foreign wars while slimming budgets.

Drones are no more part of a rational policy of self-defence than the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. And nor do they mark a drawdown in US military ambitions. They are in fact being used as a surrogate for conventional military operations. White House senior counterterrorism adviser John Brennan defended drone strikes in April 2012 by comparing them to "deploying large armies abroad" and "large, intrusive military deployments."

The fact the US has used drones in Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan and very likely in Mali as well as Iraq and Afghanistan, testifies to the fact that drones are integrated into the US's wider war strategy. They are being used to destabilise enemy governments and shore up allies.
The conditions that led to the war on terror are still in place. The US faces growing economic challenges while it retains enormous military predominance. The chaos and volatility created by the failed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the rise of Chinese power in influence in the Pacific, in Africa and elsewhere make the global situation is, if anything, even more tense than at the beginning of the last decade.
The US military is explicit that the war goes on. In January, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told Ted Koppel that even after 2014, "Our war in Afghanistan will be complete, but no one has ever suggested that that will end the war." Secretary Panetta is just as clear: "We are in a war. We're in a war on terrorism and we've been in that war since 9/11."

In a process that the experts call 'monopoly erosion', drone use is spreading fast, confirming that they are becoming the new face of modern warfare. A 2012 survey showed that 11 countries had functioning drone systems, including France, Germany, Israel, Turkey, India and China. Other countries are rushing to catch up. We already face a frightening situation in which great powers are confronting each other with these 'easy to use' 'low cost' killing systems.

A US study based on extensive research in Pakistan gives some inkling of the impact of this remote control imperialism:
Drones hover twenty-four hours a day over communities in northwest Pakistan, striking homes, vehicles and public spaces without warning. Their presence terrorizes men, women and children giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian communities. Those living under drones have to face the constant worry that a deadly strike may be fired at any moment, and the knowledge that they are powerless to protect themselves.

One man interviewed by the researchers described the reaction to the sound of the drones as "a wave of terror" coming over the community. "Children, grown-up people, women, they are terrified. . . . They scream in terror." Another "God knows whether they'll strike us again or not. But they're always surveying us, they're always over us, and you never know when they're going to strike and attack".

The opposition to our government's foreign wars must continue – we mustn't let them keep fighting behind our backs.

16 April Public Meeting in Parliament: Drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Public meeting jointly called by Afghanistan Withdrawal Group of MPs and the All Party Drones Group

Tuesday 16th April: 18.30 to 20.00
Wilson Room, Portcullis House
(next to Westminster tube station)

Speakers:
Chris Cole, Drone Campaign Network UK
Rafeef Ziadah, War on Want
Co-Chairs:
Paul Flynn MP
Baroness Stern

Afghanistan Withdrawal Group of MPs was launched to press for British withdrawal and consider constructive ways in which the conflict might be ended. The group is co-chaired by MPs Paul Flynn and Caroline Lucas. Supporters are drawn from across the political parties.

All Party Parliamentary Group on Drones was set up to examine the use of drones by governments for domestic and international, military and civilian purposes. It is chaired by Tom Watson MP. Baroness Stern, a cross bench peer and human rights and criminal justice campaigner, is group vice chair.

Chavismo Wins

by Stephen Lendman

Venezuela's spirit of democracy lives. Celebratory fireworks followed Maduro's win. They were more subdued than last October. Chavez won then by 11 points.

Sunday's results were much closer than expected. Polls had Maduro way ahead. With 99.2% of the vote counted, his victory margin was 1.6%. 

New York Times v. North Korea

by Stephen Lendman

The Times is America's unofficial ministry of information and propaganda. Daily managed news misinformation is featured. 

Articles, commentaries and editorials are brazenly one-sided. Readers are systematically lied to. Fiction substitutes for facts. Information is carefully filtered. Dissent is marginalized.

Imperial Partners Showcase Their Ruthlessness

by Stephen Lendman

America and Israel partner in injustice. They prioritize it. Imperial lawlessness is policy. So is state terror. Many examples explain. They're commonplace daily.

By Mike Ferner

When Judge Debbie O’Dell-Seneca, recently directed a corporate “fracking” combine in Western Pennsylvania to unseal the terms of a settlement with citizen-plaintiffs, she struck a clear blow for the public’s right to know.  But far beyond the borders of Washington County PA, her ruling is being celebrated by a national movement working to reverse 127 years of law that gave corporations the constitutional protections of real human beings.

Her decision echoed language as old as that used when corporations were judged subservient to citizens and as new as the slogans of the “occupy” movement.    

Lebanese fighters backed by Hezbollah fighting inside Syria near border, in several towns inhabited by 15,000 Lebanese who live on the Syrian side - Fox News

Lebanese factions deepen involvement in Syria supporting opposite sides in the civil war - VOA

Iraqi forces arrest 18 al-Qaeda suspects "planning to launch terrorist operations" in the Iraqi-Syrian border areas and "merge with Al Nusra" - Al-Shorfa

Syria: Jordan to spearhead Saudi Arabian arms drive in a move that coincides with the transfer from Riyadh to Amman of more than $1bn - The Guardian

Syria: Britain funds rebels overseeing aid inside occupied areas - Telegraph

Report: 200 Australian Muslims Waging Jihad In Syria, Majority Fighting With Al Nusra Front - The Australian

Russia to vote against 'one-sided' UN Syria resolution - RT News

VIDEO: Rebels waving Al Qaeda flag in Syria after they passed freely the Turkish Border - LiveLeak.com

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Syria troops break siege of key army camps killing at least 21 opposition fighters, a watchdog said on Sunday - NOW

The reluctance of rebel groups to reprimand criminals within their ranks has tarnished their reputation - Syria News

2 Killed, Reporters Wounded in Aleppo Car Bomb — Naharnet

Main rebel groups in Syria's Aleppo - AFP

Kidnappers free Lebanese man held in Syria, Relatives paid a ransom of $150,000 to secure his release - Ahram Online

Four Italian journalists freed by jihadist kidnappers in Syria, No details if Rome paid a ransom - Telegraph

Ahrar al Sham - A Rising Force in the Syrian Civil War - SOFREP

A press released just issued by Syria's National Coalition about Jabhat al-Nusra and Al Qaeda links -Hassan Hassan Facebook

PHOTO: Rebels Shoot Down Helicopter then Behead Crew - Human Rights Activists

PHOTOS: Syrian Died from Torture by FSA group- SyriaNews

VIDEO: FSA group interrogates and beats man- LiveLeak.com

VIDEO: Rebels invading a small village near the turkish border and start kidnapping men in this village - LiveLeak.com

VIDEO: Scud-B Missile Remains Filmed Near Raqqa - Brown Moses Blog

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Defected Syrian VP:  We are against Kurdish federalism in Syria, Our Country is Burning, No Time to Waste on Kurdish Issue - Rudaw

To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com

By Dave Lindorff

What’s wrong with the Obama administration’s proposal to change the way Social Security checks are adjusted for inflation from using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to instead using something called a “chained” CPI?

Let’s start with the fundamental problem: Social Security is not a cause of the federal budget deficit, and will not be for years, even if nothing is done to raise more revenue for the program.

New York Times Anti-Palestinian Bias

by Stephen Lendman

On April 4, The New York Times headlined "Palestinian Defiance on Display at West Bank Funerals." 

Jason Michael Cruz learned the hard way about the brainiacs populating the TSA.

Read about it at TSA News.

Venezuelans Vote

by Stephen Lendman

On Sunday, April 14, PSUV's Nicolas Maduro (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) faces opposition Rountable of Democratic Unity (MUD) candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski.  

Most Venezuelans deplore him. They do so for good reason. He represents oligarch power, ties to Washington, and returning Venezuela to its ugly past.

Creating a North Korean Threat

by Stephen Lendman

Washington needs enemies. When none exist, they're invented. A previous article said North Korea's straight from central casting. 

Pyongyang threatens no one. Media scoundrels say otherwise. So does Obama. On the one hand, he claims no one wants war on the Korean peninsula. He urges Pyongyang "to pursue peace."

by Fred Branfman        Henry Kissinger is to receive “The Intrepid Freedom” award on May 23, 2013, for “defending freedom and democracy”,at New York City's Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

“A life whose only value was death. I saw this in the village of my birth, as every day and every night the planes came to drop bombs on us. We lived in holes to protect our lives. I saw my cousin die in the field of death. My heart was most disturbed and my voice called out loudly as I ran to the houses. Thus, I saw life and death for the people on account of the war of many airplanes in the region of Xieng Khouang. Until there were no houses at all. And the cows and buffalo were dead. Until everything was leveled and you could see only the red, red ground. I think of this time and still I am afraid.”

Remarks for conference on Building Bridges and Creating the Beloved Community, April 13, 2013
Sponsored by Maryland United for Peace and Justice, http://www.mupj.org
By David Swanson

Several years ago a bunch of peace activists were eating in a restaurant in Crawford, Texas, and we noticed George W. Bush.  He was actually a cardboard version of George W. Bush like you might get your photo with in front of the White House, but he was almost as lifelike as the real thing.  We picked him up and stood him in the corner of the restaurant, facing the corner.  We asked him to stay there until he understood what he'd done wrong.  For all I know he's still standing there.

Of course, a piece of cardboard wasn't going to really understand what it had done wrong, and the real president probably wouldn't have either.  The benefit of standing him in the corner, if there was one, was for everybody else in the restaurant.  And the benefit of impeaching or prosecuting Bush for his crimes and abuses would have been, and still would be, for the world -- not for him and not for those who are angry at him.  We shouldn't imagine that vengeance would be very satisfying.  Not when you punish a man.  And not when that man destroys the nation of Iraq.  Wishing others ill does ill to yourself.  It cannot be truly satisfying. 

Twelve days from now I'll be down in Dallas for the dedication of the Bush Library, or rather the Bush Lie Bury, a half-billion-dollar project aimed at burying lies.  We'll be there to unearth what should not be forgotten.


Video streaming by Ustream
Now, I'm not so simple-minded as to believe that Bush ran the entire country on his own.  I know how Dick Cheney manipulated him.  I know that if people wanted to protest Cheney's disastrous role they could find him living near here at 1126 Chain Bridge Road in McLean, Virginia, as well as 7879 Fuller Road in St. Michael's, Maryland.  Not that I would ever, ever recommend holding massive noisy protests at either of those homes.

I also realize that there's a permanent military-industrial-corporate-bankster complex.  I know the Democrats controlled the Senate that voted for the war on Iraq.  I know the corporate media spoon-fed the war lies to my friends and neighbors.  But we should be holding all of these parties accountable, not excusing the man who was seated in virtually a royal throne just because he had a lot of help and encountered a massive outpouring of obedience.

When we tried to impeach Bush, people accused us of being cruel and vengeful.  I denied it.  I said that I was concerned about precedents being set for the future.  But the fact is that a lot of people in the movement enjoyed being cruel and vengeful, and at moments I did too.  It's great fun to point to a leader as the embodiment of evil policies.  It humanizes structural wrongs. 

We are actually up against the very same interlocking evils that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said we were up against when he spoke at Riverside Church 46 years ago last week.  We're facing militarism, racism, and extreme materialism.  But how do you take those and stand them in the corner?  How do you mock their funny accent or their bad grammar?  How do you throw your shoes at them? 

We had a lot of fun denouncing Bush as an idiot and a liar.  We had so much fun that we forgot he was an idiot when we were calling him a liar.  Don't get me wrong: he knew perfectly well that he was lying.  That's been completely established.  This is a man who told Tony Blair he'd like to paint an airplane with a U.N. logo, fly it low over Iraq, get it shot at, and thereby start a war.  This is a man who moments later walked out, together with Tony Blair, to the White House Press Corpse and declared his intention to avoid war if at all possible.  This is a man who was asked after the invasion why he'd made the claims he made about weapons, and who replied, "What's the difference?" 

But here's what I do mean to say: every leader who launches or continues a war does so using lies.  Always.  Without exception.  But some of them tell their lies better than an idiot.  Some of them don't pick obvious lies or lies that can be swiftly exposed by events. 

Not everyone caught onto this.  Some opposed the war on Iraq without opposing the war machine that generates new wars.  Some even started calling Iraq the bad war and Afghanistan the good war, as if there can be a good war.  Some imagined that because Iraq was based on lies and launched against the will of the United Nations, Afghanistan must have been based on truth and launched with a U.N. authorization.  That was not the case.  The U.N. approved of the occupation of Afghanistan two-months into it.  That's how conquest has worked for millennia.  Treaties and courts had been in place to pursue the prosecution of alleged 9-11 terrorists, and the Afghan government was open to such arrangements.  Attacking the people of Afghanistan was not self-defense or moral or legal in any way, not even under the U.N. Charter, much less some of the stronger laws that we generally choose to ignore.

The Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, for example, bans all war.  It is the product of a peace movement of our great grandparents that sought the elimination of war and has much to teach us. 

We ought to have opposed the war on Iraq because it killed people.  There's no better reason.  But then we would have had to oppose all wars.  They all kill people.  It sounds so much more REASONABLE to oppose particular wars.  Half of our neighbors work in the war industry.  What about their jobs?  North Korea may attack us at any moment.  There are evil people in the world who want to kill us.  Our government is pursuing economic and military policies that are sure to make them really, really want to kill us.  Surely we can't oppose all war.

Well then, we needed to find a different reason to oppose the war on Iraq.  And we found lots.  And they were all bad ones.  I'll give you four examples.

1. The war on Iraq was bad because Iraq had no weapons.  What's wrong with that?  Well, it implies that nations that do have weapons should be bombed.  That would include our nation, by the way, above all others.  But -- more immediately -- it would include Iran, which is being falsely accused of having weapons exactly as if that is grounds for bombing that country.

2. The war on Iraq was bad because Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11.  This implies that if the government of Afghanistan had anything to do with even indirectly supporting anyone involved in 9-11, then the people of Afghanistan -- most of whom had never heard of 9-11 and still haven't -- should be bombed.  The same logic is costing drone strike victims their lives by the thousands.

3. The war on Iraq was bad because it wasn't being won.  This of course contributed to escalating the war in hopes of winning it, whatever that would have meant.

4. The war on Iraq was bad because it was a Republican Party war.  This wasn't entirely true.  It was also a position destined to create support for wars whenever a Democrat moved into the White House.

The argument for opposing little bits of militarism rather than the whole thing is that more people are likely to quickly join you.  If you appeal to their patriotism or partisanship or religion or militarism but nudge them toward opposing one particular war for some tangential reason, well then maybe they'll be ever so slightly more likely to oppose the next war and the next war.  I don't accept that argument.

For one thing, ill-informed as I think people are, I don't think they're stupid enough not to notice when I'm telling the truth and when I'm not -- when I'm actually making up excuses for a position that I hold for a different reason.  I actually want wars ended because they kill people.  If I claim to oppose just the Iraq War but not the Afghanistan War, what happens when the Iraq War ends and I shift to opposing the Afghanistan War?  Who will take me seriously? 

Also, if we don't tell the truth then people never find out how bad the wars are.  But if they do find out how bad the wars are, then they oppose them along with us for all the right reasons, reasons that carry over to counter-recruitment and conversion -- that is, to keeping our kids from becoming cannon-fodder and converting our war industries to peace industries, which -- by the way -- produces more and better paying jobs for the same investment, not to mention greater happiness with one's career.

It's not easy to tell people how our wars really look while telling them that you support the troops and want to see wars waged with better strategies.  Our wars are one-sided slaughters.  U.S. deaths in Iraq were 0.3% of the deaths.  Iraq lost a greater number of people and a greater percentage of its people than the U.S. lost in its civil war or World War II, or than Japan or France or England lost in World War II.  Iraq lost millions of refugees, its education system, its health system, its entire society.  The nation was destroyed.  And a majority of Americans believe Iraq benefitted from the war while the United States suffered.  We were happy year after year to see a majority of Americans say they wanted the war ended, but many of them were saying they wanted an act of generosity ended, not the war as it actually existed. 

The trillions of dollars spent destroying Iraq and not rebuilding it could have been put to other uses.  It could have eliminated world hunger.  It could have saved many times the lives it was used to kill.  But that would require real generosity, not just frustration that a war wasn't being managed well.

I was involved in working hard to make sure people knew Bush lied about Iraq.  I'm pleased that a slim majority still says it knows that.  I don't know how long that will last.  But an overwhelming majority still believes some other war could be a good war.

Sitting on a train recently, I spoke to a young woman who told me she was studying dentistry and would be in the Air Force.  Couldn't she be a dentist without the military, I asked?  No, she answered, not without $200,000 in debt.  Yes, I replied, but without the Air Force, we could have free colleges and no debts.  No, she replied . . .

And, if you think for a moment, I know you'll know what she said next.  It had nothing to do with the lies about Iraq, the financial cost of Iraq, the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq, or what war mongers the Republicans are.  It had nothing to do with any of that.  Think for a second, and you'll know.

Any guesses?

She replied: if we didn't have the Air Force, North Korea would kill us.

Now, if you have a little education you probably realize that North Korea spends less than 1% of what the United States does on war preparations, that North Korea couldn't attack the United States without being completely obliterated, and that any nation on earth would scream angry threats if we pretended to drop nuclear bombs on it after having destroyed all of its cities, killed millions of its people, and threatened and antagonized it for over half a century through control of the military belonging to its former other half. 

But if you'd just learned that the war on Iraq was a dumb war that cost too much, that nothing is more heroic than militarism, that even the peace movement should be led by soldiers, and that waving flags and valuing a particular 5% of humanity to a special degree are admirable values, where would you be? 

There will always, always, always be another North Korea that's supposedly about to kill us.  We don't need rapid-response fact corrections.  We need citizens with some understanding of history, with knowledge of the Other 95%, with the capacity to resist terrorism-by-television, and capable of independent thought.  To get there, we need a peace movement that moves us, at whatever pace it can, toward peace -- toward the popular demand for the absolute abolition of all war.  And to get there we need to stop behaving like politicians.

Legislators have to compromise, and would have to compromise even if our government weren't so corrupted by money.  We don't.  Our unions and activist groups didn't have to ban the words "single payer" from rallies for the so-called "public option," thus pre-compromising and predictably ending up with nothing.  We can let Congress do the compromising, but it will do it from where we begin.  If we begin with self-censorship, we lose.

When Bill McKibben picks Bernie Sanders as his model, he's picking one of our better legislators.  He shouldn't be picking any of them as a model for activism.  Instead he should be looking to leaders of our civil rights movement, women's rights movement, labor, peace, and justice movements.  He should be looking to activist models in Tunisia, Egypt, Spain, South Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe.

Activists' work is to speak the truth and nonviolently move the nation.  Loyalty to political parties and officials is misplaced.  Elections are relatively unimportant.  We need teach-ins, sit-ins, boycotts, protests, marches, and direct actions and artwork and education of every variety.  We have so much to do that elections ought not to be sitting anywhere near the top of the list, much less distracting people with something bordering on obsession.

I must have received emails from a dozen large organizations this week on the topic of Social Security with the message "This isn't what we voted for."  They meant to say "This isn't what we want."  They may have even meant to say "This isn't something we'll stand for."  But they did vote for it in voting for President Barack Obama.  We knew he would try to cut Social Security and now he's trying to.  You may believe that backing some other candidate wouldn't have stopped him or would have been worse.  But we have to recognize a certain incompleteness in a strategy that says, "We will vote for you no matter what, and please end the war and don't build the pipeline and don't pursue NAFTA on steroids in the Pacific and don't cut Social Security and don't prosecute whistleblowers and don't go through a list of men, women, and children every Tuesday and pick which ones to have murdered."  Even when that strategy shifts to saying, "We voted for you and now we would really like you to end that war and stop building that pipeline and break off the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations and take back your proposal on Social Security and Medicare and free Bradley Manning and abandon the kill list and ground the drones," there's still something notably incomplete, at the very least, in such an approach.

President Obama has not killed the same number of people President Bush did.  And President Bush gets some of the blame for having expanded the powers that Obama now abuses.  But Obama has expanded those powers further still, and he too must take some of the blame for what all future president do now. 

I helped draft about 70 articles of impeachment against Bush, from which Congressman Dennis Kucinich selected 35 and introduced them.  I later looked through those 35 and found 27 that applied to President Obama, even though his own innovations in abusive behavior weren't on the list.  Bush's lying Congress into war (not that Congress wasn't eager to play along) is actually a standard to aspire to now.  When Obama went to war in Libya, against the will of Congress, he avoided even bothering to involve the first branch of our government.

When Bush locked people up or tortured them to death, he kept it as secret as he could.  Obama -- despite radically expanding secrecy powers and persecuting whistleblowers -- does most of his wrongdoing wide out in the open.  Warrantless spying is openly acknowledged policy.  Imprisonment without trial is so-called law.  Torture is a policy choice, and the choice these days is to outsource it.  Murder is, however, the new torture.  The CIA calls it "cleaner."  And Americans tell pollsters that they oppose killing U.S. citizens but support killing non-U.S. citizens.  And activists begin to focus on the danger to U.S. citizens, as if that were the strategic way to generate opposition.

President Obama runs through a list of men, women, and children to murder on Tuesdays, picks some, and has them murdered.  We don't know this because of a whistleblower or a journalist.  We know this because the White House wanted us to know it, and to know it before the election.  Think about that.  We moved from the pre-insanity state we were in circa 1999 to an age in which presidents want us to know they murder people.  That was primarily the work of George W. Bush, and every single person who yawned, who looked away, who cheered, who was too busy, who said "it's more important to elect a new president than to keep presidential powers in check," or who said "impeachment would be traumatic" -- as if this isn't.

The war in Afghanistan is twice the size it was when Obama arrived, and we talk about it as if it's ending, even though they tell us it will continue for longer than most wars have taken from beginning to end.  Military spending has risen in the Obama years.  Foreign bases have expanded.  The CIA has been given war making powers (and is being regularly protested just next door to Dick Cheney's house mentioned earlier).  Special forces are operating in more countries.  A new form of war, waged with drones, has been taken into new nations without any say from Congress or the U.N. or we the people.  The Pentagon is moving into Africa in a major way. 

And when we spend a trillion dollars a year on war preparations through various government departments, it's a banker bailout we never get back.  Inequality of wealth in this country has been growing under Obama even faster than under Bush.  The super-profitable, super-corrupt, and super-unaccountable war industry is part of the reason why.  Any one of the 10 richest people in this country could set aside his income for one year and buy housing for every person who doesn't have housing.  The poorest 47% of Americans own less than nothing.  The poorest 62% of Americans own less than the richest 400 people.  Only three nations on earth are more unequal than the land of the free and home of the suckered.  The Wall Street crash reduced median wealth 66% for Latinos and 53% for African Americans.  Dr. King said if we continued to spend more on war than on programs of social uplift we would approach spiritual death.  The question now, these many years and wars later, is whether we can manage spiritual resurrection.

To do so, we'll need unity.  We can't lack understanding for the student who goes into the military in order to become a dentist.  We must appreciate the economic bind that we've all been put in.  But that doesn't mean its wise to oppose cuts to Social Security by hyping the supposed "service" that veterans have done for us in wars.  For one thing, just stop and consider where all the money is going that could lower the retirement age rather than increasing it.  It's going to billionaires and the war machine.  Glorifying the war machine is not a smart way to change that.

President Kennedy once wrote that war would continue until the conscientious objector had the prestige and honor that the soldier has now.  Of course, soldiers would have to lose prestige as conscientious objectors and other resisters gain.  The two cannot be honorable together.  But opposing participation in the military is not the same thing as condemning any person who has done it.  Most do it for economic, among other, reasons.  I'm proud to be an associate (non-veteran) member of Veterans For Peace.

We also must separate the sin from the sinner when we consider employment in the weapons industry.  When Congress funds a war machine that builds momentum for war, and does so for the stated reason of creating jobs, that's sociopathic.  When someone with a family to feed takes one of those jobs, that's often a matter of survival.  When the state of Maryland, even while banning the death penalty, forces Montgomery County to give millions of dollars to Lockheed Martin, that's pure corruption.  But Lockheed's employees can't be expected to all just quit without alternative employment.

Our goal should be economic conversion from making weapons to making windmills and every other useful product.  Bills to begin coordinating this at the national level made progress in Congress from the 60s through the 80s but haven't been heard of in recent years.  One opportunity to begin this at the local level is anywhere that war jobs are actually lost during the much exaggerated current cuts, if any.  Localities and states are starting to create commissions to lobby for more war money.  Instead they should be studying the advantages of conversion.

The advantages include: more and better paying jobs, significantly so according to a study from the University of Massachusetts.  The labor movement, which has been rather weak on opposing wars for many years in this country, should be opposing war spending even for purely economic reasons.  Even tax cuts for working people produces more jobs than military spending.  The only way you can cut military spending and get fewer jobs is if you give the money to that crowd we call the Job Creators. 

Another advantage is, of course, safety.  The Department of Defense endangers us.  De-funding it is in fact in the interests of what they call national security.  But there are many more advantages.

Civil liberties groups have done heroic work in this country in recent years opposing warrantless spying, lawless imprisonment, torture, assassination, and other atrocities generated by military spending.  These groups ought to heed President Eisenhower's warning and oppose the root of the problem.  Some of them are not just refraining from opposing war spending.  They're actually supporting wars, even while opposing various evils that wars involve.  We need to work on this with people concerned about civil liberties.  When we recently passed a resolution against drones in Charlottesville, Va., it opened up a discussion about drone use abroad as well.  I recommend that.  I'll be glad to talk with you about how to do it.  Also please be at the U.S. Senate hearing on drones a week from Tuesday morning if you can.

The School of the Americas Watch has not shut down the school, but has persuaded various nations to stop sending students to be trained in torture and murder at Fort Benning, Georgia.  Sometimes our best allies are abroad.  Powerful movements against U.S. military bases in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Italy, and elsewhere need our help, as we need theirs.

The torture techniques used by our death squads and proxies abroad are also developed in U.S. prisons.  We lead the world in weapons sales, war spending, and incarceration.  And these are connected.  Taking on the prison industrial complex and the military industrial complex together is the most likely way for us to take on militarism, racism, and extreme materialism without dividing our strength.

Gun control should be holistic and international.  While the NRA and the White House debate local gun restrictions, they join hands to oppose international ones.  But selling weapons to the world, against some of which U.S. soldiers will certainly later fight, spreads the idea of righteous violence.  Peace activists should work for gun control at home, but should take the opportunity to make people more aware of U.S. weapons sales abroad, and the kinds of governments those weapons are sold to. 

Fox News' Sean Hannity says it's OK for basketball coaches to hit players because, "My father hit me with a belt and I turned out OK."  I suppose we can each judge for ourselves how he turned out.  Violence in any aspect of our lives can help to legitimate it in others.  Hannity has not distinguished himself as an opponent of wars.

Environmental groups have largely, but not entirely, shied away from opposing our greatest consumer of oil, a machine that fights wars for oil and uses the oil to fight wars, poisoning our nation and others with chemicals and radiation to an extent that would rank such abuses above 9/11 or Pearl Harbor if foreigners were responsible.  The anti-bases movement is slowly making connections, as in Jeju Island, South Korea, between environmental activism and peace activism.  Such alliances can only make us stronger.

Immigrants rights can sometimes be thought of as "refugee rights."  Little produces immigration the way wars do.  And denying rights to people whose country your own military has ravaged is beyond the rudeness of most people, once made aware of it.  Immigrants rights and peace are causes that must unite.

Education and housing and green energy infrastructure advocates, advocates for all good programs, have two possible sources of funding.  We can tax the plutocrats.  Or we can scale back a war machine currently as large as the rest of the world's combined.  Practically speaking, we'll have to do both.  The war machine generates plutocrats, and vice versa.  About half of our tax dollars on Monday will go to war funding.  There are funds that you can put that money into instead, an approach that some of you might want to investigate.

The Pentagon just announced that it went $10 billion over budget on killing children in Afghanistan.  Oops.  Meanwhile, Congress has manufactured the pretense that the U.S. Postal Service is billions of dollars in the hole.  We are a nation that can afford services we don't dare imagine, and our government still hopes to privatize the post office.  Instead of having no mail on Saturdays, I, for one, would prefer to wars on Saturdays.

The Military Industrial Complex is everything Eisenhower feared, and then some.  But if every interest group and individual for whom it is a major stumbling block were to unite against it, and in favor of conversion to a peace economy, the Pentagon's walls would come crumbling down.  Opposing militarism is not a separate little campaign, but ought to be part of a comprehensive plan for justice.  Instead of shouting "Jobs Not Cuts," we should be demanding cuts to the military and to highways and to banks and to corporate welfare, and expanded investment in all the things we want and the things we don't dare dream of but can easily afford. 

By direct democracy, Americans would reduce military spending right now.  No persuasion is needed.  But a movement of dedicated activists intent on enacting a major conversion program will require stronger and deeper public opinion than now exists. 

We're up against belief in the possibility of a good war, and myths about past wars being good and just.  We have to correct those myths and point out the altered state of the world that makes them unhelpful anyway.  Weaponry, communications, and understanding of the tools of nonviolence have changed.  War is no longer useful, even if you imagine it ever was.  What we need is a movement for the abolition of war, and one place to look for inspiration might be to the original abolitionists, to Thomas Clarkson and Olaudah Equiano, and those who launched a movement that built pressure to end the British slave trade and slavery -- a movement that gained, of course, from rebellions by those enslaved in Jamaica and what we now call Haiti.

If you're like me, there are some things you would like to abolish.  My list includes weapons, fossil fuel use, plutocracy, corporate personhood, corporate nationhood, health insurance corporations, poverty wages, poverty, homelessness, factory farming, prisons, the drug war, the death penalty, nuclear energy, the U.S. Senate, the electoral college, gerrymandering, electronic voting machines, murder, rape, child abuse, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and the Washington Post.  I could go on.  I bet you can think of at least one institution you believe we'd be better off without.  I put war around the top of the list.

In the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries in England, activists invented committees with chapters and newsletters, posters, speaking tours, book tours, petitioning, boycotts, theatrical props, and investigative journalism.  Most people couldn't vote, and voting had nothing to do with it.  Slavery was the norm across the world, and activists faced defeat after defeat for many years.  They didn't quit.  They demanded rights -- and not for themselves, but for others unlike them and for the most part unseen by them.  Britons were familiar with having their sons kidnapped and enslaved by the British navy, but they applied that understanding to others in other circumstances.  We can do the same.  We see disasters in New Orleans or New York.  We can begin to see them in Baghdad and Kabul.

Frederick Douglass went to England to meet with Clarkson.  Douglass worked for the abolition of slavery here, but later remarked, "When I ran away from slavery, it was for myself; when I advocated emancipation, it was for my people; but when I stood up for the rights of woman, self was out of the question, and I found a little nobility in the act."  Perhaps we too can act on behalf of others.  Perhaps we can expand concern for U.S. citizens killed by drones to human beings killed by drones.

Douglass also said this: "War is among the greatest calamities incident to the lives of nations.  They arrest the progress of civilization, corrupt the sources of morality, destroy all proper sense of the sacredness of human life, perpetuate the national hate, and weigh down the necks of after coming generations with the burdens of debt." 

When Britain and France went to war, the anti-slavery movement stalled.  When the global war on the globe started, progressive movements in the United States stalled.  The idea that North Korea will kill us all aids the idea that we should cut Social Security and get started on killing ourselves.  Permanent war means a permanent impediment to progress.  We have the power to abolish war and to put a trillion dollars a year to better use.

"And these words shall then become," wrote Percy Bysshe Shelley,
"Like Oppression's thundered doom
"Ringing through each heart and brain,
"Heard again - again - again -
"Rise like Lions after slumber
"In unvanquishable number -
"Shake your chains to earth like dew
"Which in sleep had fallen on you -
"Ye are many - they are few."

David Swanson's books include "War Is A Lie." He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works for http://rootsaction.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook.

Globalized Torture

by Stephen Lendman

America's the world's leading human rights abuser. State terror is official policy. So is waging war on humanity. 

Guantanamo operates lawlessly. It's America's public face. It's the tip of the iceberg. More on that below.

Greater Grand Theft Cyprus

by Stephen Lendman

Hit 'em again harder is policy. Cyprus is Exhibit A. It's pound of flesh demanded got greater. "Could it possibly get any worse," headlined Cyprus Mail?"

Syrian opposition faces "crucial leadership juncture", Ambasssador Ford: it is incumbent on the Syrian opposition coalition and military council to isolate those extremists - KUNA

Syria’s Jihadists Dismay the Opposition - Al-Monitor

Brotherhood blasts the ‘smear campaign’ against them among other Syrian opposition - THE DAILY STAR

Syria’s major coalition of Islamist rebels rejects Qaeda allegiance vow - Alarabiya.net English 

Text of responses from Syrian Islamist Rebels about Al Qaeda Merger - Hassan Hassan

Sectarian strife will persist in Syria after Assad’s fall as divisions among opposition groups deepen, top U.S. intelligence official says - The Washington Post

France says U.N. talks begin on Qaeda-linked Syria rebels - Yahoo! News

Lavrov : Attempts of Raising Doubts on Legitimacy of Syrian Government Reduce Chances of Peaceful Solution - Swissinfo

Russian Landing Ship Alexander Shabalin Bound for Tartous- SANA, Syria

Muslim Brotherhood Paves Way for Qatar’s Ascent - Al Akhbar English

Tiny emirate, huge political ambitions: Qatari investment booms (VIDEO) - RT News

Syria: Libya and Iraq biggest arms traffickers to rebels - ANSAMed.it

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Syrian rebel attack on Kurdish-populated town of Qamishli points to end of peace pact, the advance includes the Free Syrian Army and Al Nusra - Reuters

In Latakia rebels inject the conflict with a sectarian violence that has people angry, stories of Alawites captured and savagely killed by Al Nusra - Heritage Florida Jewish News

Kurd tortured to death in Syria's Aleppo: watchdog, "Like dozens of others, he was arbitrarily detained and tortured" - Yahoo!7

From Rebel Torture Chambers in Aleppo (PHOTOS) - SyriaNews

VIDEO: One Minute left before we Kill you....Terrorist in Syria torturing a hostage - LiveLeak.com

Iranian TV correspondent ambushed, shot at, by terrorists in Damascus - Trend.Az

Factories ablaze as intense clashes erupt in eastern Damascus - Xinhua | English.news.cn

VIDEO: Syrian rebels enter Qamishli - YouTube

VIDEO: The rebels shelling the airport near Qamishli - YouTube

To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com

The Alkhalifa regime has carried out a pre-emptive crackdown on citizens to prevent any disruption to the Formula 1 race scheduled to begin on 19th April. Tens of young Bahrainis have been summarily rounded up, tortured and dumped in torture dungeons. On Wednesday 10th April more than forty homes were raided by heavily-armed mercenary riot police and members of the Death Squads, and arrested at least 12 people from one town alone. They are: Hasan Jaffar Quwaied, Murtadha Ebrahim Tawq, Hasan Ebrahim Quwaied, Ahmed Abdulwahab Alkhayat, Mustafa Draboh, Ahmed Salman Alrafa’ei, jaffar Hasan Sultan, Hassan Ahmed Esmail, Hassan and Khalil Alhanan

Human Rights Watch confirmed the crackdown. Sarah Lea Sarah Leah Whitson, the HRW's Middle East director said on Wednesday 10th April: "Bahraini authorities are carrying out home raids and arbitrarily detaining opposition protesters in advance of the Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend," the statement said. These raids and detentions suggest that officials are more concerned with getting activists out of circulation for the Formula 1 race than with addressing the legitimate grievances that have led so many Bahrainis to take to the streets," it read. Night-time raids of targeted people by masked officers who show neither arrest nor search warrants appear intended to intimidate them, their families and their supporters," it added.

Also The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) expresses grave concern in regards to the escalated security measures, increased house raids and arbitrary arrests of citizens living in villages located near the Bahrain International Circuit, which is due to host the Formula 1 Grand Prix race on 19th April 2013.

A young Bahraini youth, Hussain Kadhem, is fighting for his life after he had been hit in his head with a shotgun canister fired at close range. He was taking part in a peaceful protest on Saturday 6th April in Sitra. His father was called by the hospital military men and asked to sign his agreement to carry out an operation. He is still in a critical condition.

On 8th April Alistair Burt, the Foreign Office Minister took some questions on his Twitter account about the situation in Bahrain. Apart from repeating old mantras about the need for genuine dialogue and praising the hereditary dictatorship for marginal administrative steps, Mr Burt lacked the vision for a real solution. He definitely did not promote forming a democratic regime and did not call for an end to the culture of immunity. However, he made one significant concession to Bahraini people when answering a question that said: Don’t you think that you Ambassador

are insulting the Bahrainis by saying that Iran is behind this massive movement? His reply was:  No clear evidence of Iranian involvement in 2011 unrest. But concerned Iran & others now supporting some radical opposition.” The implication of this answer is that UK Ambassador to Bahrain is wrong about Iran’s involvement, and more importantly, that the Saudi invasion and occupation of Bahrain had no justification and that both Alkhalifa and Alsaud were lying when they said Bahrain was under external threat.

Meanwhile Saudi Arabia is preparing for real change in Yemen and has started to shield itself by building a fence, over 1,000 miles long, in order to seal off its troubled frontier with Yemen. The BBC has been told by Saudi border guards that security on the Yemeni side of the border has all but disappeared since the revolutions of the Arab Spring. The implication is that the Saudi regime fears more from the fallout of a democratic change in Yemen.

The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), with the help of a medical consultant, gathered information and cases about the situation of medical services in Bahrain and the limited access to medical care. The report covered several aspects of the medical situation. The BCHR found evidence of continuous violations committed by the Government of Bahrain that included the breach of the Geneva Convention and the breach of medical neutrality.  The evidence also concludes that the medical services have been militarized and are used as a tool to target civilians. Changes in the health policies have been politicized to serve a political agenda.

Bahrain Freedom Movement
12th April 2013

Following a reading of Karen Malpede's new play Extreme Whether, James Hansen discussed what we're doing to the earth:

Sommer Gentry is a (highly distinguished) Professor of Mathematics at the U.S. Naval Academy. She was sexually assaulted by the TSA. Since then, she has refused to allow the TSA to further victimize her. For a long time she didn't fly at all, going the boycott route (as I have done), since the airlines are complicit in the TSA's abuse. Now, however, she has other ways of fighting back. Read about them at TSA News.