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One-trick pony: Obama "considering" airstrikes, despite previous failure in Iraq

Jon Queally
Common Dreams
Fri, 13 Jun 2014 17:04 UTC
obama
© Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
President Barack Obama delivered a statement on the situation in Iraq from the White House lawn.
As its citizens brace for all-out civil war in Iraq, President Obama at noon on Friday updated his administration's assessment of the highly volatile situation in Iraq by confirming he was not contemplating putting U.S. troops back on the ground in Iraq, but that his national security team is considering various military and political options which could include airstrikes.

The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been increasingly public in its request for additional U.S. assistance in the fight against the Sunni militia known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that has claimed large swaths of territory in the country in recent days.

"We will not be sending US troops back into combat but I have asked my national security team to arrange a number of options," said Obama on the south lawn of the White House. "I will be reviewing those options in the days ahead."

Comment: This crisis may be more than just 'blowback': Whatever the case may be, the U.S. 'War Department' is out of control. As things heat up on the big blue marble, it looks as if the Empire is getting of whiff of its own precarious position -- an utter failure in diplomacy, a worldwide bully whose dominance is being questioned by countries like Russia, in a state of moral stupor, with an economy on the brink of collapse, an overstretched military -- and flailing about in one last (?) death spasm of faux machismo 'full-spectrum dominance'.

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Eye 1

Manufactured terror: New study reveals FBI set up terrorism-related prosecutions


RT
Sun, 15 Jun 2014 16:46 UTC
FBI terror
© AFP / Anne-Christine Poujoulat
The FBI: proudly manufacturing terrorism for decades!
Nearly 95 per cent of terrorist arrests have been the result of FBI foiling its own entrapment plots as a part of the so-called post-9/11 War on Terror, a new study revealed.

According to the report entitled 'Inventing Terrorists: The Lawfare of Preemptive Prosecution', the majority of arrests involved the unjust prosecution of targeted Muslim Americans.

The 175-page study by Muslim advocacy group SALAM analyzes 399 individuals in cases included on the list of the US Department of Justice from 2001 to 2010.

"According to this study's classification, the number of preemptive prosecution cases is 289 out of 399, or 72.4 percent. The number of elements of preemptive prosecution cases is 87 out of 399, or 21.8 percent. Combining preemptive prosecution cases and elements of preemptive prosecution cases, the total number of such cases on the DOJ list is 376, or 94.2 percent," the report concluded.


Comment: Modus operandi: kill people in false flag operations to justify a war on terror, then use the war on terror to justify cracking down on dissent. All pathocracies are the same...

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Newspaper

'Lack of major wars may be hurting economic growth', says the New York Times

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sat, 14 Jun 2014 08:46 UTC
US economy down
© Unknown

It is no secret that as the Fed's centrally-planned New Normal has unfolded, one after another central-planner and virtually all economists, have been caught wrong-footed with their constant predictions of an "imminent" economic surge, any minute now, and always just around the corner. And yet, nearly six years after Lehman, five years after the end of the last "recession" (even as the depression for most rages on), America is about to have its worst quarter in decades (excluding the great financial crisis), with a -2% collapse in GDP, which has been blamed on... the weather.

That's right: economists are the only people who will look anyone in the eye, and suggest that it was harsh weather that smashed global trade, pounded retail sales (in the process freezing the internet because people it was so cold nobody shopped online), and even with soaring utility usage and the Obamacare induced capital misallocation still led to world's largest economy to a 5% plunge from initial estimates for 3% growth in Q1. In other words, a delta of hundreds of billion in "growth lost or uncreated" due to, well, snow in the winter.
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Arrow Down

Bye bye diplomacy: Ukrainian FM chants 'Putin - f**ker' at vandalized Russian embassy in Kiev


RT
Sun, 15 Jun 2014 03:52 UTC
Ukrainian FM Andrey Deshchitsa
© Youtube
In an incident that may be a first in diplomatic history, Kiev's top diplomat publicly 'effed' the head of another state. Foreign Minister Andrey Deshchitsa chanted "Putin's a f**ker" with a cheering crowd that earlier vandalized the Russian embassy.

Deshchitsa arrived at the scene of the heated protest - which involved overturning cars belonging to embassy staff, the desecration of a Russian flag and pelting the building with firecrackers and paint - in an apparent attempt to defuse the crowd.

He confronted some of the protesters - or rather sided with them. Footage of the encounter shows the minister saying he is all for the protest and its goals.

"I would stand up here with you can say, Russia, get out of Ukraine," he said. "Putin's a f**ker, right!"

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Pirates

Russian embassy in Kiev attacked: Protesters throw stones, firecrackers, Molotov cocktails - West blocks UN condemnation


RT
Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:54 UTC
Russian embassy in Kiev attacked
© Reuters / Valentyn Ogirenko
Pro-Ukrainian people overturn a car during a rally in front of the Russian embassy in Kiev June 14, 2014
A few hundred Ukrainian protesters rallying at the Russian embassy in Kiev have overturned several diplomatic cars and piled up tires to block entry into the building. They have also and thrown stones, smoke grenades, eggs, and paint at the premises.

Police stood idly by as the anti-Moscow crowd blockaded the site, expressing its anger over the Russian government's alleged involvement in the Ukrainian crisis.

The protesters have thrown a Molotov cocktail at the embassy, causing a minor fire which has been extinguished. As of midnight local time, the situation had calmed down. However, protesters still remain at the site.

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Green Light

Propaganda? U.S. claims Russia sent tanks to separatists in Ukraine

Andrew E. Kramer and Michael R. Gordon
New York Times
Fri, 13 Jun 2014 21:04 UTC
russia satellite photo
© NATO
A satellite photograph taken on Wednesday that NATO officials said shows 10 Russian tanks in a staging area on the Russian side of the border with Ukraine. At bottom left, the officials said, are three tanks loaded onto heavy equipment transporters, the primary method of moving tanks over road networks.
The State Department said Friday that Russia had sent tanks and other heavy weapons to separatists in Ukraine, supporting accusations Thursday by the Ukrainian government.

A convoy of three T-64 tanks, several BM-21 multiple rocket launchers and other military vehicles crossed the border near the Ukrainian town of Snizhne, State Department officials said. The Ukrainian Army reported Friday that it had destroyed two of the tanks and several other vehicles in the convoy.

"This is unacceptable," said Marie Harf, the deputy State Department spokeswoman. "A failure by Russia to de-escalate this situation will lead to additional costs."

Comment: The Western media is still parroting the threadbare propaganda line that Russia is at fault for east Ukraine's unwillingness to support a fascist, racist, prostitute government in Kiev. Russia is not engaging in provocation; the West is. Russia is not responsible for the civil war and unrest; the West is. Russia is doing all it can to deal with Western provocation, but her options are running out. Even if Russia IS supplying the independents in SE Ukraine, it's the least they can do. They need all the help they can get to protect themselves from the terrorist government in Kiev. But so far, all we have are "he said, she said" claims and conjecture, along with a provocative but totally inconclusive satellite image. Show us the PROOF.

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Dollars

No deal reached in Russia-Ukraine-EU gas talks in Kiev


RT
Sat, 14 Jun 2014 20:57 UTC
russian gas
© AFP Photo/Alexander Zobin
Three-party gas talks will continue in Kiev on Sunday morning, after Gazprom and Naftogaz failed to reach a deal on Saturday, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yury Prodan said.

Both sides made their proposals today, but no compromise was found, Prodan told reporters, adding that European Commissioner for Energy Gunter Oettinger advised for talks to resume on Sunday morning.

Before the talks, Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kuprianov told ITAR-TASS: "We are prepared to seek compromise, but pressuring us is useless. Our stance on the accumulated load of problems has been voiced many times."

The meeting in the Ukrainian capital was attended by representatives from the European Commission, which is trying to mediate the gas negotiations.

The previous round of talks over the price of Russian gas for Ukraine failed to reach a solution to the standing Ukrainian $1.95 billion gas debt. Ukraine have not been paying for most of the gas supplied by Russia this year and demands that the contract on the deliveries be amended.

Comment: We won't know until Monday, but at present it's looking like Ukraine is either being willfully stubborn, to their own detriment, or simply following orders. Russia is making reasonable demands, and even willing to compromise, but Kiev is shooting itself in the collective foot.

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War Whore

Washington's Iraq "Victory"

Paul Craig Roberts
Institute for Political Economy
Sat, 14 Jun 2014 18:52 UTC
isis3feb

A Tree Is Known by Its Fruit: USA's legacy in Iraq
The citizens of the United States still do not know why their government destroyed Iraq. "National Security" will prevent them from ever knowing. "National Security" is the cloak behind which hides the crimes of the US government.

George Herbert Walker Bush, a former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency who became President courtesy of being picked as Ronald Reagan's Vice President, was the last restrained US President. When Bush the First attacked Iraq it was a limited operation, the goal of which was to evict Saddam Hussein from his annexation of Kuwait.

Kuwait was once a part of Iraq, but a Western colonial power created new political boundaries, as the Soviet Communist Party did in Ukraine. Kuwait emerged from Iraq as a small, independent oil kingdom.
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Radar

Deja vu? US warship, 50 fighter jets ready in Persian Gulf as Iraq crisis escalating


Press TV
Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:08 UTC
Image
© Press TV

The Pentagon says the US aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush and more than 50 attack aircraft are in the Persian Gulf, ready to launch attacks against Takfiri militants in Iraq.

The warship along with a battle group of ships are "in the region and ready for tasking," Pentagon spokesperson Rear Adm John Kirby said on Friday.

Iraqi armed forces have had fierce clashes with the militants over the past few days. The terrorists have threatened to do terrorist acts in other Iraqi cities too, including the capital Baghdad.

Takfiri groups, including the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), are reportedly coming to Iraq from neighboring Syria and Saudi Arabia to undermine security in the country.

Kirby also pointed to the presence of over 30,000 military personnel in the Middle East in order to defend against any possible aggression and terrorist acts.

Comment: See also:

Covert re-invasion of Iraq on the cards? U.S. feigns surprise at ISIS attacks

Iraq crisis: Executions and rape reported as Islamist ISIS militants close in on Baghdad

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Apple Red

Pentagon prepares for mass civil unrest, spends millions


RT
Fri, 13 Jun 2014 20:22 UTC
three students w end war in Vietnam sign
© dailyperversion.blogspot.com
The Pentagon is pumping millions of dollars annually into programs that set out to explore the factors responsible for creating civil unrest around the world, The Guardian reported this week.

An article by journalist Nafeez Ahmed published by the paper on Thursday this week acknowledges that the little-known United States Department of Defense program - the Minerva Research Initiative - has since 2008 partnered with universities "to improve DoD's basic understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the US."

According to the program's website, it has recently awarded millions of dollars to be divvied up among 12 proposals from colleges that have launched projects relevant to the Pentagon's interest, including a Cornell University study called "Tracking Critical-Mass Outbreaks in Social Contagions" as well as others involving state stability, social disequilibrium and, in one instance, "Understanding American Muslims Converts in the Contexts of Security and Society." The funding all comes entirely from the Dept. of Defense.

"Understanding the Origin, Characteristics and Implications of Mass Political Movements," a study out of the University of Washington, was among those selected as well. In Lowell, Massachusetts, researchers there will use $2 million from the Pentagon to study terrorist behavior.

Comment: Criticisms have been raised by the Network of Concerned Anthropologists regarding universities which take in a large portion of research funding from military sources. Academic focus becomes overly distorted to war-making, shrinking other fields such as environmental research, while research goals in physics, computer science, and engineering now operate on the assumptions that knowledge about force is paramount. It is also their worry that dependence on this source of funding reduces intellectual autonomy so that the university becomes an instrument, rather than a critic.

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