23 December - Notes

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New Frontiers in Economic Barbarism

The growing militarisation of police

Is access to military-grade weapons changing the mentality of crowd control?
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has granted $34 billion over the last 10 years to state and local police departments to combat terrorist threats and drug trafficking. But critics say the advanced military-level training and weapons for police aren’t being used against Al Qaeda. Instead they are being utilised for crowd control in protests.

Outside of the United States, police forces in other nations have increased their use of non-lethal weapons to control riots. In the UK, authorities are testing the use of lasers that cause temporary blindness.

Social media is putting a spotlight on police brutality and military-style tactics used against protesters. Videos and images from Occupy Wall Street encampments to college campuses show police officers aggressively using pepper spray, tear gas, sound cannons and other weapons that have been described as “non-lethal.”

In this episode of The Stream, we examine the increasing militarisation of civilian law enforcement with Alex Vitale, associate professor of sociology at Brooklyn College, and Spencer Ackerman, senior reporter at Wired Magazine.

opit John Farnham

#ajstream All you need to know about likely effects of police weaponization experiment-resources.com/stanley-milgra…

 

Can the U.S.government close social media accounts ?

 

The Obama administration and The New York Times are teaming up to expose and combat the grave threat posed by a Twitter account, purportedly operated by the Somali group Shabab, and in doing so, are highlighting the simultaneous absurdity and perniciousness of the War on Terror. This latest tale of Dark Terrorist Evil began on December 14 when the NYT‘s Jeffrey Gettleman directed intrepid journalistic light on the Twitter account maintained under the name “HSMPress,” which claims to be the press office of Harakat al-Shabab al-Mujahedeen, the Shabab’s full name. Gettleman’s article included this passage early on in its account:

But terrorism experts say that Twitter terrorism is part of an emerging trend and that several other Qaeda franchises — a few years ago the Shabab pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda — are increasingly using social media like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter.

That has to be the single most amusing phrase ever to appear unironically in the Paper of Record: Twitter terrorism. And, of course, the authority cited for this menacing trend is that ubiquitous sham community calling itself “terrorism experts,” which exists to provide the imprimatur of scholarly Seriousness on every last bit of inane fear-mongering hysteria.
What is more likely than compulsory action is thuggish extra-legal intimidation aimed at Twitter to “voluntarily” close the account. That path is less overt but just as insidious, if not more so. That is how government officials such as Joe Lieberman succeeded in cutting off all of WikiLeaks’ funding sources and web hosting options without the bother of charging that group with a crime: by demanding that Amazon, Master Card, Visa, Paypal and others “on their own accord” terminate WikiLeaks’ accounts and refuse to provide the group with any services. As EFF’s Trevor Timm asked today: “How fast does Joe Lieberman release a statement today saying we should censor the Net in the name of national security? I bet before noon.”

Cupcake Deemed 'Security Threat,' Confiscated By TSA

TSA: Frosting Too 'Gel-Like,' Posed Risk

Read more: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/30062442/detail.html#ixzz1hP9q4sQU


Manning to be charged with aiding terrorists
( Presumably that means Julian Assange )

Global harms of industrial ag: We know enough.

Last month global experts released yet another report linking industrial agriculture with the dramatic degradation of soil, water and other natural resources currently threatening our ability to feed ourselves.

The State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture (SOLAW), released by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization calls for new national policies in countries across the globe to effectively support sustainable management of water and land.
It also recommends investment in local agricultural knowledge, together with modern technology and innovative farming practices such as conservation agriculture, agro-forestry, integrated crop-livestock systems and integrated irrigation-aquaculture. These systems will expand production, address food security and limit harmful impacts on fragile and pressured ecosystems.

Water & soil in crisis worldwide

The SOLAW authors report that in cereal producing areas across the globe, intensive groundwater use is drawing down aquifer storage and threatening the groundwater sources upon which rural communities depend. At the same time, food production is threatened by degradation of water quality from salinization, excessive build up of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, contamination by pesticides and the disappearance of wetlands.
Best practices can protect, nourish, even build soil — if we haven't destroyed it altogether
Water quality and availability are inextricably linked to how we mange (or destroy) soils. While it takes thousands of years to develop soil, industrial agriculture practices can destroy soil at a rate 10 to 100 times its rate of formation. According to a 2006 Cornell University study, the vast majority — 99.7% — of human food comes from cropland, which is shrinking by more than 10 million hectares (almost 37,000 square miles) a year due to soil erosion by wind and water.

Scholarship and Advocacy: Bomb Iran Edition

Rick Perry Fracks Up, Denies Link to Groundwater Pollution

 

Obama Seeks to Resume Aid to Repressive Dictatorship in Uzbekistan

www.truth-out.org

The US Senate Appropriations Committee, in a move initiated by the Obama administration, has voted to waive Bush-era human rights restrictions on military aid to the Islam Karimov dictatorship in Uzbekistan, one of the most brutal and repressive regimes on the planet.

Will Anyone Be Held Accountable for War Crimes in Gaza?

Self-congratulatory Horseshit

 

The Wrong Facebook Friends Can Sink Your Credit Rating | Disinformation

www.disinfo.com

Adrianne Jeffries explains the downside of maintaining a social media presence for Betabeat: Let’s take a trip with the Ghost of Christmas Future. The year

Related articles

• Information Clearing House - Selected Headlines, December 23, 2011 (jhaines6.wordpress.com)
• The Closing Argument Delivered by the Government at the Manning Hearing (dissenter.firedoglake.com)
• On Syrian State Television, Bombings Are Called Qaeda Plot Directed by U.S. (thelede.blogs.nytimes.com)
• You: CIA has suspended drone attacks in Pakistan, U.S. officials say (latimes.com)

15 December - News Notes

Image via WikipediaImage via WikipediaImage by slagheap via FlickrImage by David_Reverchon via FlickrImage by Getty Images via @daylifeImage via WikipediaImage via WikipediaImage via WikipediaImage via WikipediaImage via WikipediaImage via WikipediaImage by Aldemir Suku via FlickrImage by The U.S. Army via FlickrImage by The U.S. Army via FlickrImage by Getty Images via @daylifeImage by Grumbler %-| via FlickrIraq Syndrome The Obama team couldn't get "Iraq's inspiring but fragile democracy" (in the immortal words of Joe Lieberman, waxing absurd in a USA Today opinion piece) to approve immunity from local prosecution for American troops.  The public still hates war; even neocons acknowledge that Nam was a disaster. Because of it, the war interests spent a generation retooling their agenda, and ultimately American society, to work around this fact.  War propaganda became savvy and benign.
Whatever "syndrome" does coalesce around this disastrous mistake must develop an intelligence that transcends the machinations that brought it on. 
 Iraq Syndrome must include awareness of our toxic legacy, in particular the radioactive fallout resulting from exploding several thousand tons of depleted uranium munitions. Last year, the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health published a study of the devastated city of Fallujah, pointing out that, among much else, it is experiencing higher rates of cancer, leukemia and infant mortality than Hiroshima and Nagasaki did in 1945.

War is a Business

Permalink Submitted by opit on Thu, 12/15/2011 - 4:07pm

I'm impressed. Few writers even mention Depleted Uranium and suppressed reporting of civilian casualties. Not that rampant suicide and disease among returning troops is properly covered in the news or the murderers in charge held to account, fiscal or otherwise. The Baathist government enabled by the CIA was forbidden from exercising the only expertise in government that existed in the country. The lists of imprisoned and tortured are a catalogue of horror recapitulating both the past and other places benefiting from School of the Americas suppression of self government and demockracy. Bremner's 100 Orders are hard to find unless you know where to look...as well as the planned path of destruction of which Iraq is the keystone. Few realize that blowback has more than one form and is often domestic in nature. Monsanto is listed as the Worst Company of the Year.A Search of Rumsfeld Monsanto will start you on the trail of why. But even if you don't immediately watch 'The World According to Monsanto' - and that can be tough when the corporation kills the feeds - perhaps 'The Real Victor in Iraq was Monsanto' will help you appreciate the coming disaster in America. The Panelist originally posted it as an essay which I found more explicit than the video with which it was replaced. http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com/2010/12/real-winner-in-iraq-is-monsanto.html

Seed Shortage News

Corporate Control of Agriculture Threatens FutureHybrid seeds, patents on basic food items, the agricultural lobby, and legal threats to small farmers and home gardeners are all a direct result of corporate control of every waking minute of every day in the United States.  

Read the Full Story

Full Story

'Attack of the Cloned Beef and Modified Beets

One of my favorite events at our rural county's annual agricultural fair is when the youthful 4-H club members show their prized cattle.Well-scrubbed teenagers clad in white shoes, white pants, and white shirts proudly lead their well-groomed bovines into the arena where they are judged and ribbons awarded.

Blackwater's Black Ops

Over the past several years, entities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater have provided intelligence, training and security services to US and foreign governments... Full Story

Does GOP only endorse survival of the richest?

The Republicans want to extend the Bush tax benefits for the “most” among us, like Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan, Justin Bieber, Monsanto and BP. Full Story

Seed shortage leaves Parbat farmers in jeopardy

PARBAT: Farmers in Parbat have not been able to grow green vegetables due to a shortage of the required vegetable seeds.The shortage has reportedly taken place after the District Agricultural Office (DAO) Parbat failed to bring the seeds on time. Full Story

Who? is behind the Massive Worldwide Buyup of our Forests?

Energy Wild Cards

By Dan Denning • November 7th, 2011 • Related Articles • Filed Under

The day fast approaches when Greece will ditch the euro, default on its debt, and leave Europe to deal with Italy and Spain. And the fall of the European centrists is nigh. But before we get to that, we want to begin another week of reckoning with a practical in

esciencenews http://bit.ly/uCIH6N

6 hours Improving security in the cloud 

Anonymous RVA

Indefinite Detention :Architecture of Fascist StateCongress sends defense bill to Obama after reworking detainee provisions

A sweeping defense bill that sparked a heated debate over the handling of terrorism suspects passed the Senate on Thursday afternoon and is headed to President Obama’s desk after weeks of wrangling that included a veto threat from the White House.

The $662 billion defense authorization bill was approved by the Senate 86 to 13 one day after the White House withdrew its threat to veto the measure over several controversial detainee provisions. The White House said those provisions would have been an infringement on its executive power. 


Glenn Greenwald: Obama Had Indefinite Detention Inserted Into Defense Authorization Act


Chris Hedges 'Hope' Speech
After which he was arrested

MotherJones Mother Jones 

Stat of the Day: 20,000 inmates are in prison for crimes they didn't commit: tmblr.co/Z0-QTyDG7FMA

NationalMemo The National Memo 

NC Governor vetoes Republican bill to repeal Racial Justice Act :bit.ly/tk4teR #DeathPenalty

NationalMemo The National Memo 

Mike Konczal on how credit collectors reinvented the debtors' prison: bit.ly/tvVV1e @rortybomb

Is this an Alien Spacecraft Parked Next to Mercury?

More Desecration Of Halifax Skies

We are so high on coffee, self-absorbed and busy with our own so-called “lives” that we barely have time to tilt our skulls (or eyeballs) 45 degrees upward when no buildings are in the way.
If we did, we might sooner come to the realization that weather modification is an unfortunate reality.


Satellite Takes Picture of Chinese Carrier on the Move

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Obama to sign indefinite detention bill into law   

In 1969, the Senate passed legislation to repeal the Emergency Detention Act.

Senator Daniel Inouye, who introduced the bill, said he became “aware of the widespread

rumors circulated throughout our Nation that the Federal Government was readying

concentration camps to be filled with those who hold unpopular views and beliefs. These

rumors are widely circulated and are believed in many urban ghettoes as well as by those

dissidents who are at odds with many of the policies of the United States.

The following article is written by a U.S. professor reflecting U.S. foreign policy memes - not Iranian policy or choices. As such it purports to represent choices in ways that give the U.S. the most apparent justification for doing what it likes....but which do not necessarily reflect the real world situation.
Iran signed up with the NPT under guarantees it would be able to assure the world of peaceful intentions by inspections by an impartial party. Since then it has been demonized because it is no longer run by the U.S. appointed tyrant - so that the terms of its agreement are constantly violated by nuclear armed nations.
Refer to the Third Pillar of the NPT.
Russia was so incensed by U.S. actions using the NATO alliance to install atomic warheads in Turkey that it arranged to do the same in Cuba. That was the Cuban Missile Crisis. More recently there have been moves to install nukes in eastern Europe against the terms under which the military forces of the U.S.S.R. left. They are no amused.  So when they hear the noise raised against the customer whom they supply fuel for power generation they take it as an assault on their trading relations with other nations. This is especially stupid when said customer does not have the technology which they are accused of wanting....and have entered into arrangements which should have guaranteed the whole question was moot.
Putin was so pissed - and his military advisers likewise - that he said any attack on Iranian nuke facilities would be considered as if it were an attack on a Russian facility. How many MIRVs on ICBMs does Russia have compared to none
I suggest you go surf CASMII if you have any concern that the operation of the propaganda of the NPT  TRAP has not completely fried any ability to assess the situation that you might consider yourself to have.
Nor do you know anything about Ahmadinejad that hasn`t been suitably twisted - and remember he doesn`t speak English ; an easy target to misrepresent. Even so his side of the story spurs walkouts from those who don`t want to hear it. Try ahmadinejadquotations.blogspot.com
Such are the stories by the nations with WMD from Hell about those without....who call for nuclear disarmament.
opitslinkfest.blogspot.com
Im afraid composing in Chrome didnt work out well.

Can the world live with a near-nuclear Iran?

Mohammed Ayoob is University Distinguished Professor of International Relations at Michigan State University and Adjunct Scholar at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.

I find the argument that Iran is engaged in developing a nuclear weapons program credible. I am also convinced that Iran will not test a device, but rather will acquire the capability to produce a weapon quickly if its strategic environment deteriorates to such an extent that it feels it must.

It is time for world leaders to recognize the inevitability of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons capability, even if it remains untested, with Tehran following the policy and adopting the rhetoric of deliberate ambiguity. Moreover, the major powers that act as the self-appointed guardians of the current international nuclear order need to recognize that treaties and other legal documents are not the primary determinants when it comes to state decisions regarding acquisition of nuclear capability. It is a country's strategic environment that principally determines such a decision.

Iran's strategic environment is such that it makes the decision by Iran's policy makers to acquire nuclear weapons appear rational both to themselves and to the wider Iranian public. 

The strategic rationality of such a policy was recognized in a candid moment by none other than Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak.

Given the near-certainty that Iran is launched on an irreversible course for nuclear weapons capacity, there are only two strategies that can be used -- if not to stop the nuclear program, then at least to make it less threatening to American interests. .......

reducing the paranoia currently afflicting Iran's policy makers because of their fear of encirclement by nuclear powers. ....  economic sanctions and military threats are only likely to stiffen the Iranian resolve to acquire nuclear weapons

apotropoxy 

To those who answer "NO" to the Can the world live with a near-nuclear Iran? headline question, you then are obliged to answer this:
Can you live with another war in the Middle East- this time with a much more powerful and committed enemy who will likely target Tel Aviv in its first retaliation wave?

 

chris02 

Why not, we live with a nuclear Israel. They've never let the IAEA inspectors in and haven't signed on to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.Iran however, is a signatory of the agreement since 1968. Time for the fear mongering and hypocrisy to end!!!

HerrSticks

"The American decision to invade non-nuclear Iraq while desisting from militarily confronting a nuclear North Korea surely tells Iran's rulers that even rudimentary nuclear capability can deter potential American and allied designs to attack Iran, whether to topple its regime or impair its nuclear capacity"

MannyLerma 

Iran is not Iraq, FromBelow. They can use conventional weapons to destroy all viable infrastructure in israel, includin nuclear plants, power plants, industrial areas, etc.

Says all that needs to be said.

Bloggulator

The last time Iran attacked anyone was over 250 years ago. Their 8 year war with Iraq was in self defense, when Saddam Hussein, armed with biological and chemical weapons, supported by the US (the Reagan Administration) attacked them. Iran has never forgotten how the US overthrew their westernized parliamentary DEMOCRACY, and replaced with with a vicious thug dictatorship.

Attention spans amongst middle easterners are far longer than we in the west, who have gotten used to an instant gratification lifestyle

Thinker23

I have some news for those who agree with the article above: First, no one is willing to attack PEACEFUL Iran, not China, not Russia, not the US and certainly not Israel. A war with Iran will cause any attacker a lot of trouble and no benefits. Second, if Israel was stripped of its nukes the Arab neighbors would decide (again) to end Israel as they've tried in 1948, 1967 and 1973. The resulting war would cause hundreds of thousands or even millions of casualties meaning that Israeli nukes are are guarantor of peace. I'd like anyone willing to challenge these two statements to do just that. Good luck!

MoeUSA 

The U.K France and Israel attacked Egypt first unprovoked.

nbarash1

Mr. Ayoob, you could not be more wrong. The logic you use in this article is unbelievably naive. Iran's motivation for acquiring nuclear weapons goes far beyond simple regional security. They want nuclear capability for leverage over other regional nations, power, and to ensure their regime survives. Their "encirclement" by nuclear weapons? Pakistan is the only nuclear power in the middle-east (India is a part of Asia). 


The notion that Iran genuinely wants and would adhere to a NWFZ is laughable. You talk about Israel's "stubbornness" to nuclear disarmament as if its a legitimate obstacle. Nuclear capability is the only thing allowing the one established democracy in the region to survive. Iran's track record has proven that Ahmadinejad would shake your hand in agreement to a NWFZ while continuing development with the other hand behind his back. 


Allow Iran to be an integral part in the future of the region? Right now you have a wave of democracy sweeping the region. Iran brutally oppressed attempts to establish democracy in Iran. Not on the abhorrent level of Syria, but despicable nonetheless. You think we should allow the nation that sponsors terrorism, denies the Holocaust, and has been the cause of American deaths in Iraq the legitimacy that comes with course of action you propose? Let alone a prominent role in the future of the region? Are you insane? 


Can the world live with a near-nuclear Iran? No

Bloggulator

Attention spans amongst middle easterners are far longer than we in the west, who have gotten used to an instant gratification lifestyle

Thinker23

I have some news for those who agree with the article above: First, no one is willing to attack PEACEFUL Iran, not China, not Russia, not the US and certainly not Israel. A war with Iran will cause any attacker a lot of trouble and no benefits. Second, if Israel was stripped of its nukes the Arab neighbors would decide (again) to end Israel as they've tried in 1948, 1967 and 1973. The resulting war would cause hundreds of thousands or even millions of casualties meaning that Israeli nukes are are guarantor of peace. I'd like anyone willing to challenge these two statements to do just that. Good luck!

MoeUSA 

The U.K France and Israel attacked Egypt first unprovoked.

nbarash1

Mr. Ayoob, you could not be more wrong. The logic you use in this article is unbelievably naive. Iran's motivation for acquiring nuclear weapons goes far beyond simple regional security. They want nuclear capability for leverage over other regional nations, power, and to ensure their regime survives. Their "encirclement" by nuclear weapons? Pakistan is the only nuclear power in the middle-east (India is a part of Asia).

The notion that Iran genuinely wants and would adhere to a NWFZ is laughable. You talk about Israel's "stubbornness" to nuclear disarmament as if its a legitimate obstacle. Nuclear capability is the only thing allowing the one established democracy in the region to survive. Iran's track record has proven that Ahmadinejad would shake your hand in agreement to a NWFZ while continuing development with the other hand behind his back.

Allow Iran to be an integral part in the future of the region? Right now you have a wave of democracy sweeping the region. Iran brutally oppressed attempts to establish democracy in Iran. Not on the abhorrent level of Syria, but despicable nonetheless. You think we should allow the nation that sponsors terrorism, denies the Holocaust, and has been the cause of American deaths in Iraq the legitimacy that comes with course of action you propose? Let alone a prominent role in the future of the region? Are you insane?

Can the world live with a near-nuclear Iran? No

Bloggulator

Considering the threat that Iran and the Iranian people face, right down to to their nation's and peoples' very existence, from the hardline US-Israeli alliance of power-crazed thugs who have a bloodlust to kill anything that moves (provided they are Muslims), to acquire money, power, land and natural resources ... and perhaps then you might understanbd why Iran feels to need to acquire a nuclear DETERRENT.

jetlaggin

They are determined to have nukes.  Listen carefully; they are determined to have nukes.  No sanction that we can push through the UN will be strong enough to stop them.  They'll just continue to play for time.  


They are determined to have nukes because the cleric elite are determined to hang on to power.  They see non-nuclear tyrants in hangman's nooses on youtube, and nuclear tyrants untouched and still getting to be tyrants.  Seriously, which group do you think they'd like to be in?  We either need to take out their capability decisively, or do what Mohammed here says and capitulate.  Half measures aren't going to work.

MoeUSA 

Middle Eastern country's have a right to Nuclear energy. What will they do when they Oil runs out. Beg for electricity like Iran was begging to isotopes. China is building 50 more Nuclear plants the USA is building 50 more Nuclear plants

RaulPA

How can Israel insinuate that they will destroy Iranian underground facilities while they cannot even destroy the tunnels between Egypt and Gaza? Israel cannot even stop the rocket attacks from southern Lebanon, so how can they think they can go in and destroy all these facilities in Iran? Sounds to me like they are being a little overconfident.

( No problem. If there aren't any there - there won't be any left ! )

diggit 

More fear mongering. Ron Paul is right. Iran is completely surrounded by countries that have nuclear weapons. And here we are on the other side of the planet shaking in our boots. This country used to be so strong and brave. Now we just come across as weak and afraid. That is very sad.

nambi2 

When Israel started the Nuclear arms race in the Mid East where was the opposition? Was the USA claiming Israel would soon wipe Palestine off the map, which they have almost done.

Mycology4

Its gross that the world has come to compare Americans having nukes to Iran having nukes.

There is a big, big difference folks.( Too Right)


Not all governments were created equally, some are genocidal and quite honest and open about their genocidal intentions.


We MUST stop Iran from having nuclear weapons, ( Stop WHO ? The Disarmament Conference holders ? )


and we would be right to do so

woodartist

While the leadership may not figure it out, the Iranian people likely will "discover" the same thing that every other nuclear power has identified:  While having nuclear weapons sounds really impressive, it's impossible to use them.  You can't bluff, you can't threaten, and you can't fire them off...because it's national suicide.  Unfortunately, some of the Iranian leadership doesn't quite understand that...and they might willing go...if they thought they could take out Israel with them. 

( And that rather covers the thread of uninformed bravado posing being perceptive and representing.....their programming. )

celh

The world has gone crazy.. My whole life there has been this "fear" of what another country could/would do with nuclear weapons.
We were afraid of Russia for years..
And it all goes back to Nuclear  power..
What a horrendous thing it is..And it brings to mind a cartoon I saw years ago when I was just a child.. It showed Nikita Khrushchev coming out of his bomb shelter to a world dead and devoid of anything, rubble all around him.. And he is holding his fist up and screaming  "mine all mine"...
It put it all in perspective.. What are we thinking when we even consider a weapon like this? To gain what? its insanity.

KCInd 

This is one of the more thougtful atricles that I have read on CNN. What a great piece written by someone with the insight into the region that is rare in the media.

Manumission

Maybe if we stopped invading other countries for no reason we would have to worry less about people becomming hostile and making nuclear threats.  America lost its "power" in the 1970s when we ran out of oil.  Now, all we can do is threaten or invade nations that actually have oil - Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq.

Orlando22

It's a reasonably balanced article but I miss the fact the USA also deploys nuclear weapons in the ME and is thus opposed to a NWFZ.And Israel would do whatever the USA tells it to do.Last the constant stream of threats of violence towards Iran coming out of Washington and Jerusalem is not helpful.It's also illegal according to the UN charter which bans the threat of force to settle diplomatic disputes but who cares about international law?

sasss31 

And IT IS IMPOSSIBLE for any survey to have any validity whatsoever in an oppressive society where people live in fear.

mrb0606

im young and maybe ignorant but why so much hate. In america they teach us to love each other no matter what race religion creed or color. Some of these other countries hate each other so much. Why dont the isreal hate the germans the way the iranians hate isreal???? We have to learn how to forgive and forget there are a bunch of tyrants in our society but we cant punish others for what a select group of people do. But i guess that does not make money if there are no wars or no fighting cant sell news papers either if everyone is getting along

Scooter111

In order to justify the stupifying, and stupid, waste of money on our war making capabilities, since WWII we have always needed to invent boogie men to defend against.  However with Iran we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel.  Iran, like North Korea is a nonentity.  And like North Korea the only nation it would endanger with an atomic bomb is itself.

CreauxD

Think about it for a second. If any country, including the USA, wanted to prevent Iran from obtaining and testing nuclear weapons, they would have already enacted plans to assassinate Ahmadinejad and his officials. For some reason they are allowing this to continue... so now you have to wonder... for who's benefit?

opit 

George W Bush announced black ops in Iran targeting government and military figures for assassination in 2006.

AbateFaria

Why so much fuzz about Iran nuclear facilities and the possible nuclear head when the Israelis have more than 300 nuclear bombs? It doesn't make any sense unless Obama and Natanjahu were trying to move the attention from their internal problems at home to Iran.  It worked with Bush and Cheney on Irak and it is working here too. By the way, the Russians and the Chinese already are betting on the drone. It will be interesting to know who got  it. Great technology.

nicknemati

people u need to relise all these little wars and conspiracies are just there to distract you, open your mind to the truth stop being so blind, these are nothing! all the governments of the world are working together for christ sake, the afghanes and the taliban, the americans and the russians the south/north koreans Israelis and iran. they are all working together this is all a trick dont fall for this crap

advocatusd 

Iran is dead set on getting nuclear weapons as a deterrent to attack. As proof of this consider this: Pakistan hid Bin Laden but Iraq, who didn't and didn't have WMDs, was still invaded. why? Pakistan has nuclear weapons and Iraq did not. that lesson was not lost on Iran.

opit

That bin Laden story is such dreck it deserves to be shot down. Remember HW Bush was head of the CIA.  Also remember Air America smuggling drugs on USAF aircraft into San Diego during Nam.. The Bush family own property in Afghanistan.Bin Laden was Bush's Saudi banker ( a prince ) and family friend dying from kidney failure - in 2001. Go check No Quarter for CIA rants on interference with the 'hunt for bin Laden.'  It was a farce that proves people will believe anything. Meanwhile Iraq was invaded - which shows you how much Osama bin Lost had to do with anything in the real world.
Cheney's boy Scooter Libby took the fall for outing the CIA NOC on the middle east nuclear threat desk : Valerie Plame-Wilson. Want more,...ex FBI translator Sibel Edmonds at Boiling Frogs has a bunch.
p.s. The American-Saudi backed Taliban asked for court papers to charge a foreign prince who financed the Soviet resistance with 9-11  It was never done.

DeeeNYC 

It's all coming to a head! We've got to bomb iran before it's too late!

opit 

I believe that is exactly what an unending flow of b.s. is designed to make you believe. Have a nice day Chicken Little.

IamVeritas 

Which countries have used Nukes? Oh that is right, the USA... Which makes them the authority to tell others not to use them or have the capability?   USA should just rule the planet and let Iran be one of our puny states, similar to Rhode Island.

bigguy52

The boob writing this article conveniently doesn't mention the leaders of this near nuclear hostile gov't calling for the elimination of the state of Israel, and recently, the murder of ALL Jews in the world.  I couldn't live with myself being an accomplice to the 2nd holocaust, but I guess this Mohammed can.

opit 

Funny the 25000 Jews living in Iran who have no interest in 'Right of Return' don't run for their lives then. O wait. Iran has a history of protecting Jews from violence and offering sanctuary.
Didn't you pay any attention about that noise about Ahmadinejad being Jewish ? LOL

FugXu 

Blame it on Bush! He got rid of Old Iraq! They kept Iran in check! Boo!

opit

Saddam was paranoid enough to stabilize the region - which was why the CIA put him in place. When it was time to destroy governments all across oil rich territory - having failed to seize Iran with U.S. support - it was time to take him out and raise a profitable ruckus for Halliburton where the spinoff could only cause more fighting. Arms merchants do that sort of thing.

DaDarkSide 

Korea has nukes, why USA doesn't talk about it. Cause it is scared and everyone knows that korea has it.. Iran doesn't have nukes and USA just wanna attack it. It is finding reason after reason. Remember Iraq?

keksiea

Ruling elite is setting stage for World war 3.


They have been brainwashing people thru media past 10 years.
In West only news you get is about Muslims....apparently only in Muslim world bad things happen.
People are getting RADICALIZED and you can see in comments more and more people are "Ready and Willing" to fight.
Same thing is occurring in Muslim world but with opposite enemy.


This is how Germans went from normal people to Nazis,constant daily brainwashing to hate Jews and to make them believe they are superior nation than anybody else.
Once you get people round up and ready to go,you create spark and next thing you have is full blown war and its too late to stop it by anyone.

NationalMemo The National Memo 

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NationalMemo The National Memo 

. @rortybomb on the perils of "free market #foreclosures " :bit.ly/w3kdty @rooseveltinst @NewDeal20

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