The Largest Minority

August 1st, 2008 by Manila Ryce

The sound quality sucks in this video so turn your speakers up.

Faiz Shakir of Think Progress interviews Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh, who reveals that Vice President Cheney had planned to put US Navy Seals in Iranian PT boats in the Strait of Hormuz to provoke a war with other US vessels in a similar fashion to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

Hersh states: “There was a dozen ideas proffered about how to trigger a war. The one that interested me the most was why don’t we build — we in our shipyard — build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats. Put Navy seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up.”

Being the world’s only superpower comes with some perks - no one ever fucks with you - but that can also be a curse when maintaining your status depends on waging perpetual wars against indefensible nations. If you can’t get them to attack you, then you just have to attack yourself. US foreign policy is outright terrorism and “false flag operations” are a key part of that policy.

As if carrying out a “false flag operation” wasn’t easy enough, the planning, execution, and scapegoating is all funded by American taxpayers who then fit the bill for the upcoming war itself and volunteer themselves to be slaughtered in it as well.

h/t AlterNet

August 1st, 2008 by Manila Ryce

In a departure from its usual policy of shooting first and not asking questions later, Israel has actually been negotiating with Hezbollah while talking to Syria and Hamas. Such progress was glaringly uncharacteristic of a state which makes it a point not to negotiate with terrorists (the Israeli definition of a “terrorist” is any Arab who objects to being a slave).

So why the sudden change in policy? Well, it would seem that while facing multiple investigations of corruption and the still-present defeat of the second war against Lebanon fresh in the minds of Israelis, Prime Minister Olmert has been compensating on the diplomatic front to gain favor with a public increasingly dissatisfied with his character.

However, now that Olmert has announced he will resign, right-wing Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu (or Benji as he likes to be called) has demanded that national elections be held to decide a new Prime Minister because he is likely to be the winner of those elections. “This government has reached an end … it doesn’t matter who heads Kadima,” the hardline Netanyahu told Israeli Radio as he railed against Olmert’s talks with the Palestinians and Syria. “They are all partners in this government’s total failure. National responsibility requires a return to the people and new elections.” Fresh elections, which would put Netanyahu back into power as the prime minister, seem very likely

Read the rest of this entry »

July 27th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

McCain and Obama think it was. Given that they can’t say anything without checking with focus groups and military sponsors first, what do you think? Sabah al-Nasseri argues that the Iraqis not only brought down the violence and rebuilt the government, but that the US “surge” actually made things more difficult for them to do so. The main cause of death and instability in Iraq has always been, and continues to be, the US occupation.

July 25th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

By now, most of you are probably aware that the majority of prisoners the US is holding are in secret prisons. While Guantanamo Bay prison is the most well-known, it only represents around 1 percent of the total population of those illegally held around the world.

Additionally, due to a complete lack of public knowledge of these secret prisons, those held are given even worse treatment than the abuses we’ve learned are taking place in Gitmo. What could be worse than being waterboarded and having your genitals electrocuted? Are they forced to watch a Two and a Half Men marathon? We may never know, especially since the people who could potentially inform us about these situations are being locked up by the US military themselves.

This is mafia-style intimidation. Can you imagine if another nation were to forcibly kidnap and imprison any journalist in any country indefinitely for daring to report its methods?

The US military is holding Jawad Ahmad, who has worked with Canadian Television (CTV), at its detention facility at Bagram north of Kabul on allegations he is an “unlawful enemy combatant.”

Ahmad is among 650 people being held at Bagram without trial, US-based International Justice Network executive director Tina Monshipour Foster told reporters.

“Many people in Afghanistan and in Iraq that have been targeted for detention are local journalists covering the conflict in their own country,” said another prominent US human rights lawyer, Barbara J. Olshansky.

“When the United States detains reporters, photographers, camera operators and holds them for long period without charge for any offense and without trials and without any evidence, we know that part of the goal is to just shut people up,” she said.

The intention was to “make sure that the people of those countries and the United States do not know what is going on,” she alleged.

read more…

July 24th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Disgusting.

July 22nd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

No, not by the fashion police. The UN War crimes tribunal announced Monday that Former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadžić is in custody after being on the lam for more than a decade. He is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the law of war.

When Bosnia and Herzegovina seceded from Yugoslavia in 1992, Karadžić declared himself president of a Bosnian Serb republic. The Bosnian Serbs were backed by Yugoslavian military and paramilitary forces, and quickly seized control of most of the country. During the conflict, Serb forces ethnically cleansed the territories they seized with forced displacements and killings of Muslims and Croats.

One crime in particular, which Karadžić is accused of overseeing, is the massacre at Srebrenica. The area was a UN “safe area” until it was overrun by Serbian troops who killed almost 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys. It was the largest massacre in Europe since World War II.

It’s believed that added pressure lead to Karadzic’s arrest. In December, the European Union warned Serbia that it would have to cooperate with the war crimes tribunal if it wanted to join the organization. Serge Brammertz of the Tribunal said, “It is also an important day for international justice, because it clearly demonstrates that nobody is beyond the reach of the law and that sooner or later all fugitives will be brought to justice.”

source

July 21st, 2008 by Manila Ryce

The above video shows an Israeli soldier shoot a rubber coated steel bullet from just 1.5 meters away at the left foot of Abu-Rahma, a bound and blindfolded Palestinian who was protesting the continued construction of Israel’s Apartheid Wall. The incident was taped by a fourteen-year-old girl on July 7th in the West Bank. A probe was only launched into the conduct of the soldiers when human rights organization B’Tselem received the video and demanded that the Military Police Investigation Unit conduct an immediate investigation.

Despite IDF claims that such abuse is in “direct contradiction with IDF values and principles”, just as the US military claimed to be true when pictures from Abu Ghraib were made public, it is well known that this kind of abusive behavior is standard procedure, and that it comes down from the top. In fact, it’s a lieutenant colonel who is seen holding Rahma’s arm in the film as the lower-ranking soldier takes aim and fires.

July 20th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Venezuelan oil company Citgo, together with the Citizen’s Energy organization, will be providing about 460,000 energy efficient light bulbs to low-income US households. Venezuela’s Ambassador to the US said, “This program is a counterpart to our efforts in Venezuela, where more than 60 million conventional light bulbs have been replaced by energy efficient ones through Misión Revolución Energética.”

The U.S. project will start as a pilot program in communities that already receive discounted heating oil from Citgo throughout the U.S. Communities in the energy-saving light bulb pilot project include Washington, D.C.; Houston and Corpus Christi, Texas; Lamont, Illinois; and Lake Charles, Louisiana, where Citgo refineries operate. It will also be implemented in low-income communities in Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, Milwaukee, Madison, and Minneapolis.

source