You are hereBlogs
Blogs
Manhattan DA espies financial fraud and indicts...a tiny Chinatown bank: Indicting the Wrong Target in the US Financial Capital
By Dave Lindorff
Note from TCBH: Manhattan island hosts the headquarters of four of the nation's five biggest "too-big-to-fail" banks: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, JP MorganChase, and Citi Group. US Attorney General Eric Holder has stated publicly in Congress that he has no intention of seeking criminal indictments of these banks or their top executives -- or even their middle-ranking executives for that matter -- despite the myriad frauds, scams and schemes they've all engaged in, like robo-signing mortgage documents and touting derivatives that they were privately calling "sh*t," all of which led to the crashing of the US and global economies.
Secret FDIC Plan to Loot Bank Accounts
Secret FDIC Plan to Loot Bank Accounts
by Stephen Lendman
It shouldn't surprise. It's already policy. Market analyst Graham Summers explained. Depositor theft is coming. Europe is banker occupied territory. So is America.
Exploiting Holocaust Remembrance Day
Exploiting Holocaust Remembrance Day
by Stephen Lendman
Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Remembrance Day is commemorated annually. It runs from sundown April 7 to sunset April 8. This year's theme is "Defiance and Rebellion during the Holocaust: 70 years Since the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising."
Sunday night Warsaw and Jerusalem ceremonies included government officials, dignitaries and holocaust survivors.
New York Times Supports Targeted Killings
New York Times Supports Targeted Killings
by Stephen Lendman
It doesn't surprise. When America goes to war or plans one, Times editors march in lockstep. They support imperial lawlessness. More on that below.
America's AfPak war is illegal. Tactics include targeted killings. Drones, helicopters and other conventional air strikes are used.
Syria News Apr 9
Syria: Suicide car bombing kills 15, injures 146 in Damascus - Yahoo! News
VIDEO: State TV's coverage of today's car bomb in central Damascus - YouTube
VIDEO: More on the Damascus bombing - YouTube
PHOTOS: Terrorist Bombing Rocks Crowded Area in Damascus - SANA
Report: Rebels and security forces exchange gunfire after Damascus car bomb - Al Jazeera Blogs
VIDEO: Video Claims To Show The Moment Of Mohammad Al-Bouti's Assassination - Brown Moses Blog
Syrian Army Fully Controls Eastern Gouta, Regains some Areas in Aleppo - almanar.com
Syrian human rights group says nearly 9,000 regime troops killed during 2-year conflict - Fox News
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All Syria chemical arms claims need examining: U.N.'s Ban - Reuters
Arms supplies to all sides of Syrian conflict should be halted - Putin - RT News
Two members of Lebanon's Hezbollah killed in Syria - AFP
Relatives of Lebanese hostages bar Syrians from entering workplaces - THE DAILY STAR
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Syrian opposition national coalition loses clout inside Syria - Xinhua | English.news.cn
The Syrian Opposition’s Leadership Problem - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ankara’s Kurdish Peace Talks Reverberate Among Syrian Kurds - Rudaw
Mistrust mars Syria rebels, Kurds deal in Aleppo - News24
To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com
TSA detains, harasses another disabled woman, by Lisa Simeone
Following is an account from a reader who has experience with TSA Pre-Check— as you’ll see, she confirms what we’ve been telling you for over a year now — that it’s a boondoggle and an extortion racket — and who also has experience with being abused by the TSA. She was temporarily disabled when she flew. The TSA first bullied her, then went against their own procedures and forced her to remove her leg cast. Still that wasn’t enough. They then bullied her some more and almost caused her to miss her flight. Read on:
Read the rest at TSA News.
Destabilizing Venezuela: Longstanding US Policy
Destabilizing Venezuela: Longstanding US Policy
by Stephen Lendman
It doesn't surprise. It's likely happening ahead of Venezuela's April 14 presidential election. It'll continue when it's over.
Washington tolerates no independent governments. It demands pro-Western ones. It wants them serving US interests. Outliers are targeted for regime change.
More Peace Process Hypocrisy
More Peace Process Hypocrisy
by Stephen Lendman
On April 6, John Kerry began a multi-nation tour. He'll travel to Europe and East Asia. His first stop is Turkey. He'll meet with Netanyahu and Abbas. He wants peace talks restarted. More on that below.
Peace process deception is policy. It's always been a charade. It is now. Israel wants it that way. So does Washington.
Syria News Apr 8
Syrian Regime Launches Counteroffensive on Rebels - ABC News
Syria's Homs besieged for 300 days, some 80 percent of the city is under tight army control - NOW
In Golan IDF exchange fire with rebels as Israelis warn jihadists gaining foothold - The Guardian
As Fighting Rages in Damascus, Kurds Flee Their Neighborhoods - Rudaw
Syrian rebel prime minister Ghassan Hitto has begun talks to form an interim government - AFP
Free Syrian Army Denies Egypt Muslim Brotherhood Supplied Arms - Ikhwanweb
Syria oil industry buckling under rebel gains - USAToday
Steep fall in Syria foreign trade in 2012 - NOW
VIDEO: Demonstration of Tartous citizens supporting Bashar Al Assad - YouTube
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Qaeda chief urges Syria rebels to seek "jihadist Islamic state" - RT
Al-Qaeda and Jabhat Al-Nusra Collaborating - Asharq Alawsat English Mobile
Al-Qaeda Seen Expanding Influence in Lebanon - Al-Monitor
VIDEO: Italian journalists detained in Syria by Salafi militants - euronews
VIDEO: Well armed, uniformed rebel group created in Ghouta - LiveLeak.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moscow Slams UN ‘Maneuvering’ on Syria Chemical Attack Probe - RIA Novosti
UN-Syria talks on probe of alleged chemical weapons use continue: UN - KUNA
Transcript of Putin's interview to the ARD: Voice of Russia American Edition
Russia Heavily Boosting Mediterranean Naval Fleet amid Syrian Conflict - IBTimes UK
New Lebanon PM insists on neutrality in Syria conflict - AFP
Lebanese factions train Syrian refugees as militants: Lebanon interior minister - PressTV
Iraqi Shiite group says member killed ‘defending holy sites’ in Syria - The Washington Post
Syria's War Could Inflame Turkey's Hatay Province - Syrian Assistance
Brazil: Dialogue is Only Way out of the Crisis in Syria - SANA
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report: Syrian Rebels Recruiting Children for Military Missions, Sexual Abuse - abna.ir
Raping Women in the Name of Islam - Gatestone Institute
To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com
Scientology for Agent Orange Victims
The phrase "adding insult to injury" is no doubt being redefined in several online dictionaries this week following news of a U.S. effort to sneak one of our dumber religions (and that's saying something) into the minds of Vietnamese suffering from Agent Orange.
If you're not familiar with Agent Orange, here's a short summary from Veterans For Peace:
"Three million Vietnamese suffer the effects of chemical defoliants used by the United States during the Vietnam War. In order to deny food and protection to those deemed to be 'the enemy,' the U.S. defoliated the forests of Vietnam with the deadly chemicals Agent Orange, White, Blue, Pink, Green and Purple. Agent Orange, which was contaminated with trace amounts of TCDD dioxin -- the most toxic chemical known to science -- has disabled and sickened soldiers, civilians and several generations of their offspring on two continents. Millions of Vietnamese are still affected by this deadly poison and tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers. It has caused birth defects in hundreds of thousands of second and third generation children in Vietnam and the U.S."
And here's the latest news from the Associated Press:
"THAI BINH, Vietnam (AP) -- North Vietnamese army veteran Nguyen Anh Quoc grimaces as he forces down the last of the 35 vitamins he takes each morning. After decades of suffering from illnesses he believes were caused by exposure to Agent Orange, he is putting his faith in a regime advocated by the Church of Scientology.
"'I have to take them,' the 62-year-old said at a treatment center established with the help of a Scientology-funded group. 'They will clean up my body.'
"The center, a converted mushroom farm in northern Vietnam, owes as much to Scientology's desire to expand around the world, away from scandal in the United States, as it does to pressure in Vietnam to try to help aging veterans still suffering from the effects of war.
"Many medical experts regard the treatment -- a 25-day vitamin and sauna regime -- as junk medicine or even dangerous. But for now at least, it has found fertile ground here.
"The Vietnamese advocacy group overseeing the program in Thai Binh province wants to offer it to all 20,000 people suffering from ailments blamed on dioxins in Agent Orange. U.S. airplanes sprayed up to 12 million gallons of the defoliant over the country during the Vietnam War to strip away vegetation used as cover by Vietnamese soldiers.
"The advocacy group, which has the implicit support of the government, has almost completed a two-story accommodation block for patients and is raising funds for a much larger complex, with 15 more saunas than the five it currently has.
"'I have seen so many desperate families that their tears have dried up,' said Nguyen Duc Hanh, the head of local branch of the Vietnam Association of Agent Orange Victims in Thai Binh. 'I don't know what the scientists say about its effectiveness, but the patients say it improves their health. They should be able to experience it before they die.'
"Scientologists believe the regime, which includes massive consumption of vitamins, four-hour sauna sessions and morning runs, can 'sweat out' toxins stored in body fat. There are no peer-reviewed studies to back this claim. . . .
". . . In 1991, Scientology offered 'rundown' treatments in Russia to people suffering symptoms related to radiation exposure following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. The church still refers to the mission in its online literature, claiming numerous successes, but Russia banned it from performing medical treatment in the country in 1996.
"Last year, a French court upheld fraud charges and fined the church $791,000 for its efforts to persuade people to take the 'rundown.'"
I know: let's sell it to the Vietnamese! It's not as if we've done them enough harm yet!
A Peace Movement That Moves Toward Peace
Why did the peace movement of the middle of the last decade not grow larger? Why did it shrink away? Why is it struggling now?
As has been documented, a huge factor in the shrinking away was partisan delusion. You put a different political party's name on the wars and they become good wars.
But that also means that what you had was a peace movement that believed in the possibility of good wars. In fact, much of it believed that Iraq was a bad war and Afghanistan a good war. Many people even went out of their way to display their "reasonableness" by declaring Afghanistan a good war without actually examining the war on Afghanistan; this was imagined to be a strategic way to prevent or scale back or end the war on Iraq.
Of course, when the bad war ends, and all that's left is the good war, those who are actually motivated by opposition to war must shift to opposing the former good war as the current bad war. And why would you listen to anyone who did that?
Many, of course, opposed the war on Afghanistan until the invasion of Iraq, and then switched to talking almost exclusively about Iraq. Afghanistan was labeled the good war once Iraq had happened, just as World War II was labeled the good war once Vietnam had happened. Our beliefs regarding contrasts between Iraq and Afghanistan are mostly false. The invasion of Afghanistan was no more legal or moral or honest or U.N.-authorized than the invasion of Iraq. The occupation of Afghanistan is no less of a vicious one-sided slaughter of helpless people who wished us no ill than the occupation of Iraq was.
But we aren't in the habit of talking about wars as one-sided slaughters of innocent men, women, and children. And we aren't in the habit precisely because that is the essential feature that all of our wars share in common.
When we chose to oppose the war on Iraq without opposing all wars, we were obliged to find a reason why. We were obliged to oppose the war . . .
· because Iraq had no weapons (as if a government's possessing weapons were grounds for its people being bombed -- a notion that could cost Iran dearly),
· or because Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 (as if a government's association with a group affiliated with a party having once met with a wing of an organization connected to a group involved in 9-11 were grounds for being bombed -- a notion now costing the lives of drone strike victims by the thousands, not to mention sustaining the war on Afghanistan),
· or because the war in Iraq wasn't being won (a notion that helped escalate that war and later the occupation of Afghanistan as well),
· or because -- in fact -- the war on Iraq was a Republican Party war (as of course it was not; just check who controlled the U.S. Senate at the time -- remember the Senate, that body that long prevented President Obama from doing any of the wonderful things he'd like to have done in his secret, if not imaginary, heart of hearts? And look at what happens to opposition to Republican wars when a Democrat is put on the throne.)
A forthcoming book by Paul Chappell is even better than all of his other ones, and I highly recommend it, but it's marred by advocacy for appealing to people's patriotism and religion. I attended a peace conference recently at which some of the speakers claimed that the movement against the war on Iraq had been more strategic than that against the war on Vietnam, and had done so by appealing to patriotism, waving flags, avoiding disrespect for the U.S. military, and not opposing war in general. For several years now, peace groups have been preaching that it would be unstrategic, if not racist, to oppose President Obama. We must oppose Obama's wars, but not him or his political party, as that might turn people off. So we're told.
Often it's considered humble and inclusive to reach people "where they are" and nudge them ever so slightly toward where you'd like them to be. And most of our country is saturated with militarism. But if a peace-in-certain-circumstances movement does manage to turn out a crowd for a march or two, what remains behind when the marches are over? Certainly not an understanding of what's wrong with militarism. Not even an understanding of what the war was that was marched against.
A majority of Americans believes the war on Iraq benefitted Iraq but hurt the United States. A majority wanted that war ended, year after year, for several years, many motivated by selfishness -- by a desire to cease bestowing such philanthropy on the undeserving and ungrateful people of Iraq. A majority believes President George W. Bush lied the nation into the war, but not that all wars are begun with similar lies. And almost no one in the United States understands what was done to Iraq, that more Iraqis and a higher percentage of Iraqis were killed than were Americans in our civil war, or British or French or Japanese or Americans in World War II, or that three times that many Iraqis were made refugees, that towns and neighborhoods and populations were wiped out, infrastructure destroyed and never yet rebuilt, cancer and birth defects at record levels, civil rights worse than under Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, a nation devastated as totally as almost any other in history.
We opposed this without understanding a fraction of it, without educating others about it, and without displaying disrespect for the U.S. military. Is that an accomplishment to be truly proud of? How can counter-recruitment efforts possibly succeed in limiting the military's supply of cannon fodder if the peace movement doesn't disrespect the military? I think the simplemindedness here is not in the public we're so arrogantly trying to manipulate gently, but in ourselves. When we tried to impeach George W. Bush it was not with ill-will toward him, but with an eye on the future behavior of future presidents. When we treat membership in the U.S. military as respectable, how can we simultaneously convey to high school students the disgust we will feel for their action, should they choose to enlist? I said for their action, not for them. Are we not capable of recognizing the economic bind students are in and nonetheless stigmatizing participation in mass-murder? Or are we perhaps not even capable of recognizing mass-murder for what it is?
Here's a secret about people in this country: they don't support mass murder. Here's another: they're not stupid. So, when you force them to be aware that their government is committing mass murder and glorifying it, they get upset, angry, and often energized to make a change. And when you talk to them honestly, they know you're being honest even if they don't agree with you at first. And when you respectfully disagree, they are able to notice whether your position makes any sense. So, if you oppose wars because you oppose killing people, you have to explain to everyone you can that you oppose wars because they kill people. You can't say "I oppose this particular war because Paul Bremmer did something dumb," because everyone will fantasize about a future war that doesn't include the dumb thing. And once you've said that, you have to downplay the fact that the war is an act of mass-murder, because if it were, then why wouldn't you be opposing it for that reason? Why wouldn't your interlocutor as well? You have joined in a cooperative agreement to keep that matter secret as you turn the conversation to the WMD lies or the financial costs or the costs to the U.S. troops who made up 0.3% of the deaths.
On the train home from a recent peace conference, 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.
Got it? 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 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? What would you know about militarism, where it exists, or how it functions?
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.
TSA allows man on plane without security check, by Amy Alkon
The best thing is, after he was turned away for a lack of ID and boarding pass, they watched him slip through the airport’s secure area with his badge (he’s a Delta employee) yet waited 45 minutes to call Port Authority Cops.
This isn’t to say I think we’re necessarily in danger from behavior like this or that the TSA’s job is anything more than a security puppet show.
Defending IMF Financial Terrorism
Defending IMF Financial Terrorism
by Stephen Lendman
On March 29, New York Times editors headlined "Strengthening the IMF." What demands abolition, they support. It doesn't surprise.
Iranian Nuclear Talks
Iranian Nuclear Talks
by Stephen Lendman
On April 5, so-called P5+1 talks began. They picked up where previous ones left off. Countries involved include America, Britain, China, Russia, France and Germany. Almaty, Kazahhstan played host. It did so for the second time.
Iran participates in good faith. Saeed Jalili heads its negotiating delegation. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton represents P5+1 countries.
Another Dismal Jobs Report
Another Dismal Jobs Report
by Stephen Lendman
Putting lipstick on this pig doesn't wash. One analyst said March data was miserable from every angle. Economist David Rosenberg called it "one soft US jobs report." It "quash(ed) the consensus view of economic re-acceleration."
NO CUTS! NO TAX INCREASES ON ORDINARY PEOPLE! Chase Down Mega-Rich Tax Cheats and Recover the Offshore Trillion$
By Dave Lindorff
Hold everything!
I mean it. Stop talking about cutting school budgets, Social Security benefits, Medicare, Veteran’s pensions. Stop cutting subsidies to transit systems, to foreign aid. Stop cutting unemployment benefits. Stop it all.
Permanent War: Longstanding US Policy
Permanent War: Longstanding US Policy
by Stephen Lendman
Wars define America. They reflect longstanding policy. They're permanent. They've been waged every year in the nation's history. They target enemies at home and abroad. When none exist, they're invented.
Peace is a non-starter. It's always been that way. It never had a chance. It doesn't now. It's systematically spurned.
BOJ Increases QE
BOJ Increases QE
by Stephen Lendman
On April 4, the Financial Times headlined "Bank of Japan follows the Fed, on steroids." Pedal-to-the-metal reflects new governor Haruhiko Kuroda's policy.
Syria News Apr 6
Obama to host Middle East allies for talks on the Syrian crisis - Alarabiya.net English
Saudi Arabia backs push to carve out liberated southern Syria - Telegraph
Sectarianism, Saudi-Qatar Jostling Prevail in Syrian Opposition - Al-Monitor
Iranian soldiers fighting alongside Bashar Assad: captured officer - Al-Shorfa
Hezbollah: 3 Lebanese Shiites dead in Syria fighting - NOW
Syrian rebels threaten to hit Hezbollah targets in Lebanon - NOW
Relatives of kidnapped Lebanese pilgrims shut Syrian shops - THE DAILY STAR
Times of London: Military wing of Hamas training Syrian rebels - JPost
Yemeni officials: 'Jihad' in Syria causes problems for Yemen - Al-Shorfa
Turkey not yet ready to allow Syrian opposition to open embassy - todayszaman
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bombs Hit Damascus Like Shooting Stars as Battle Intensifies — bloomberg.com
Rebels look to extend gains from Raqqa to south and east Syria - THE DAILY STAR
Ahrar al-Sham: A Profile of Northern Syria’s al-Qaeda Surrogate - The Jamestown Foundation
Rebels say take army post near Syria's southern border - Reuters
Four Italian journalists abducted in northern Syria: report - FRANCE 24
VIDEO: Syrian town tries to block rebels and arms coming from Lebanon - LiveLeak.com
VIDEO: Rebels argue over sharing looted belongings - LiveLeak.com
VIDEO: Shocking video Ahmed, 8-year-old FSA soldier from Aleppo - YouTube
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conflict Intensifies between Kurdish militias YPG and Syrian governement forces (VIDEO) - Al-Monitor
Clashes Break Out Between Kurdish Groups In Syria - Al-Monitor
Syrian Kurds flee their neighborhoods in Damascus as fighting rages - ekurd
Plans for the ‘Kurdish Empire’ advance, thanks to Syria - ekurd
VIDEO: Assad Forces Kill Kurdish Fighter - LiveLeak.com
To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com
TSA Blog’s disappearing act, by Susan Richart
Blogger Bob has become a magician!
TSA’s Pre-Check is a bust, by Bill Fisher
The TSA recently announced that its Pre-Check program has expanded to five additional airports, bringing the total participation locations to 40 airports.While the TSA is celebrati
Playing the North Korea Card
Playing the North Korea Card
by Stephen Lendman
For decades, North Korea's wanted normalized relations with Washington. It's been repeatedly rebuffed. Promises made were broken. America needs enemies.
Institutionalized Barbarism
Institutionalized Barbarism: Official Israeli Policy
by Stephen Lendman
A previous article discussed Arafat Jaradat. Shin Bet interrogators killed him. They tortured him to death. Independent autopsy results proved it.
Crashing the 2-Party System: The Way Forward is a Single-Issue Social Security Defense Party
By Dave Lindorff
The history of third parties in America is pretty dismal. The system is rigged against them, for one thing. But equally problematic is the lack of focus that leads to infighting and splits whenever a third party is created.
Syria News Apr 5
Red Cross: Syria Humanitarian Crisis Worsening - AP
AFP: Lebanon proposes UN refugee camps inside Syria - AFP
In Syria, some 300,000 Christian refugees also fleeing from UN camps - Asia News
VIDEO: Refugee camps in Syria cripple under strain - YouTube
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Insight: Syrian government guerrilla fighters being sent to Iran for training - Yahoo! News
No agreement yet on Syria access for U.N. chemical arms inspectors: Official - Yahoo! News
Syrian regime troops appeal for immediate aid in Al-Raqqa - Alarabiya.net English
The Raqqa Story: Rebel Structure, Planning, and Possible War Crimes - Syria Comment
VIDEO: Turkey's Alawites support Syria's Assad - YouTube
VIDEO: FSA Child Soldier Interview - YouTube
To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com
New Film to Screen in Bay Area: The Last War Crime
Announcing: two screenings for The Last War Crime movie on Saturday, May 25th, 2013 at The Delancey Street Screening Room, 600 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA. Please submit this form to reserve your tickets.
Note that a radio station has turned down advertising for this film and stated that it was doing so for political reasons. A law suit is progressing. Learn more and hear the unacceptable ad here.
Confessions of a guy who peeps at women getting groped by the TSA, by Amy Alkon
He didn’t want to be identified by name. He says he’s just a guy who travels who reads my site.
I saw that you care about privacy and probably want to know that this happens. I travel a lot and it is boring to just wait at the gate.
Public Banking: What Better Time Than Now
Public Banking: What Better Time Than Now
by Stephen Lendman
Money power in private hands games the system. It does so destructively. Controlling money, credit and debt for private enrichment assures speculation, booms, busts, inflation, deflation, instability, crisis, recessions and depressions.
Israeli Murder by Neglect
Israeli Murder by Neglect
by Stephen Lendman
Israel operates one of the world's most unconscionable gulags. Thousands of Palestinian political prisoners fill it.
Fundamental human rights are denied. Torture, ill-treatment and medical neglect are commonplace.
