3 Apr - Night Owl Articles

Hyping The Evil Iranian Empire

Newshoggers

Over at Salon, Glenn Greenwald examines the quality of "reporting" on Iran and the threat it presents to America.

But I think Glenn puts too much blame on reporters and not enough on the "unofficially official" hawks in the Pentagon and White House who have fed the mainstream's stenographers a steady diet of outright lies, half-truths and distortions for years now. People like David "Judy in Drag" Sanger wouldn't have diddly if they weren't privy to constant leaks of ammunition from within the U.S. government. That's what the "stenography for access" game played by all the serious people is all about.

A quick side note: there's news today that a missing Iranian nuclear scientist who disappeared from Saudi Arabia months ago is indeed in CIA hands. That means that Iranian claims of American involvement in his disappearance were correct and official U.S. denials at the time were outright lies. Hmmmm. I take this as proof the U.S. government is more than capable of lying about matters Iranian, but I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell me how Iran is always the liar and the U.S. always the truth-teller, because we're the good guys or something.

( Owning the media helps present the public with material friendly to the owners. )

More Dark Truths from Guantánamo, as Five Innocent Men Released

Andy Worthington

After eight years’ imprisonment without charge or trial, five former Guantanamo prisoners are beginning new lives this week — two in Switzerland and three in Georgia. Their stories reveal, yet again, how Republican lawmakers and media pundits in the US, who have, in recent months, renewed their fear-filled attacks on those still held, are guilty of hyperbolic and unprincipled outbursts, and, in addition, how these critics’ attacks are damaging to the prospects of cleared men, seized by mistake, finding new homes in countries that, unlike the US, are prepared to offer them a chance to rebuild their shattered lives on a humanitarian basis.

All five men were cleared for release from Guantánamo on two or three separate occasions — through Bush-era military review boards, through the deliberations of an interagency Task Force established by President Obama, and, in some cases, through successfully having their habeas corpus petitions granted by a US court. However, difficulties arose when it came to freeing them because they feared torture or other ill-treatment if returned to their home countries, and the US government (first under George W. Bush, and now under Barack Obama) recognized its obligations, under international treaties, not to repatriate them, but to find other countries prepared to take them instead.

The fact that Georgia — the former Soviet satellite in the Caucasus — is the new home of three of these men, and not the US state, demonstrates another obstacle to the men’s release. Had President Obama acted decisively last April, two Uighurs (Muslims from China’s Xinjiang province, seized by mistake in December 2001) would have been freed in the US, and others would undoubtedly have followed. However, when the President bowed to pressure from Republican critics, and turned down a plan, put forward by White House Counsel Greg Craig, and backed by defense secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which involved bringing the two men to live in the US, the job of Obama’s Special Envoy, Daniel Fried, who was charged with finding new homes for dozens of cleared prisoners from countries including Algeria, China, Libya, Syria, Tunisia and Uzbekistan, was made considerably more difficult.

America’s allies had to overcome their obvious impulse — refusing to help unless the US also acknowledged its own mistakes by giving new homes to cleared prisoners — and it is a tribute to the governments of Switzerland and Georgia that they felt able to place humanitarian concerns above political pragmatism by accepting the men. Switzerland had already accepted an Uzbek ex-prisoner in January this year, and Georgia now joins Switzerland in a distinguished club that also includesAlbania, Belgium, Bermuda, France, Hungary, Ireland, Palau, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain. These countries have all shown up the US (and other European countries, including the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark), who have turned their backs on the dozens of cleared prisoners who will languish in Guantánamo until new homes can be found for them.

David Icke Exposes Saudi America – Torture and Terror Are Ignored in The Name of Oil Cartels

Invisible Opportunity

As you read this, a 19-year-old Sri Lankan maid sits in her prison cell waiting to hear if she will be executed by beheading in one of the world’s sickest and most brutal countries – Saudi Arabia.

While the dark minds in the dark suits incessantly chant the mantra about ‘terrorism’, they avert their eyes when it comes to the grotesque fascist regime known as the ‘House of Saud’. This silence is not just about oil, either. Saudi Arabia is a client-state of the United States and its befrocked ‘royal’ family does whatever it is told to do by the cabal in Washington.

It is no coincidence that the 9/11 patsy, Osama Bin Laden, came out of Saudi Arabia to be front man for the US and Saudi-funded terrorist groups in Afghanistan known as the Mujahideen who shapeshifted into the Taliban and ‘al-Qaeda’. Nor is it by chance that 15 of the 19 September 11th ‘hijackers’ named by the FBI were Saudi citizens.

Saudi Arabia is one of many 51^st American states and acts as its proxy in the Middle East. Therefore, what is condemned in other countries is ignored when the Saudis do the same or worse.

800 Cases Filed on Civilians Killed in US Wars: ACLU

Common Dreams.org

 More than 800 complaints have been filed by families of civilians killed in US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a civil rights watchdog said citing documents made public Thursday.

Iraqi men carry the coffin of a killed relative during a funeral. (AFP image)

The 13,000 pages of documents made public by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) include "more than 800 claims for damages by the family members of those killed, including many that were denied," the group said in a statement.
The group obtained the documents following a September 2007 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.
It said many of the claims were denied under the "combat exemption" clause to the Foreign Claims Act (FCA), "which provides that harm inflicted on residents of foreign countries by US soldiers during combat cannot be compensated under the FCA, even if the victims had no involvement whatsoever in the combat."
Due to the claim denials, "many innocent civilians were not compensated for their harm or were referred to the Commander's Emergency Response Program for a discretionary condolence payment that is subject to an automatic 2,500-dollar limit per death," the ACLU said.
The records "illustrate that innocent civilian victims and their families are still not being appropriately compensated for their losses," said Nasrina Bargzie, an attorney working with the ACLU on the case.

Voluntary Foreclosure Prevention Fails to Deliver

Common Dreams.org

Over 2.4 million foreclosures are expected this year, up from 2.1 million in 2009. One out of every four homeowners is now underwater--owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. More than one in seven are behind on their payments
The Obama Administration's main focus in its fight against foreclosures is the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).
It's failing.
Once touted as a program that would help 3 to 4 million borrowers by December 31, 2012, it has helped less than 200,000 people receive permanent modifications. (And "permanent" modifications only guarantee the lower payments for five years.)