Dylan Ratigan: "In America Today, we are getting closer to fully exposing the greatest con and cover-up in the history of this country. It involves our Banks, the Federal Reserve, our Congress and of course you and me. First though, think of the Fed as the God-Father in this con."


Dylan Ratigan is the host of msnbc's "The Dylan Ratigan Show," an opinion and analysis-fueled daily broadcast program airing weekdays at 4pm on MSNBC. Ratigan also writes regularly for the Huffington Post and produces one of America's most insightful and provocative podcast's "Radio Free Dylan" and dylanratigan.com. His upcoming book to be published by Simon & Schuster later this year, is tentatively titled "Greedy Bastards."

RT talks to Stephen Lendman, a Chicago based radio host of a political talk show, about the real reasons for the NATO aggression against Libya.

You seen the heading, and I'm not going to sugar-coat this one, I've set aside a couple of articles I was working on to write on the upcoming invasion of Libya by the greatest destructive force for globalisation the modern world has seen...

I hadn't intended to write up this particular rant, but I've been felt ready to claw my own eyes out at the monumental level of UNFIXABLE BULLSHIT I'm being inundated with on my subscriptions and news feeds! So get this right now, huge problems out-with your control instil fear, panic and underlying layers of stress which ultimately weakens your resolve and cognitive ability to look for practical solutions while obsessing on those problems! And that is the point of the inundation of so much negativity, a veritable barrage of information which people are soaking in and fixating on, intelligent people for sure, but there it is. They are too busy looking way over there when we've got some pretty monumental battles right here to fight that we most certainly CAN get our teeth into.

One might do well to consider that a great deal of Libya's problems come from the crooks we've got over here in the UK, EU or the US, they can't do much about our crooks, there's a few dozen bad-ass armies armed to the teeth in between. So does that not mean we should be doing something about the corrupt sons of bitches? Just a thought...

It's going to be highly offensive to some and not my usual, not just in language as I'm not one for pointless crudity but this subject got under my skin, but also too in some rather graphic descriptions of a few realities of the barbarity of war that an ignorant Pro-War Statist and the useful idiot repeaters cannot or will not accept, those that get their entire world from purely mainstream sources when the crow about the 'necessity' of establishing this "no fly-zone" or "initiating regime-change" by any and "all necessary measures." They are wilfully ignorant of the harsh reality behind these little sound-bites, but let's not confuse ignorance of an alien understanding with a lack of intelligence because I don't. I just call them 'weekend warmongers'.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday that the U.S. expects to turn control of the Libya military mission over to a coalition -- probably headed either by the French and British or by NATO -- "in a matter of days."

In his first public remarks since the start of the bombings, Gates said President Barack Obama felt very strongly about limiting America's role in the operation, adding that the president is "more aware than almost anybody of the stress on the military."


"We agreed to use our unique capabilities and the breadth of those capabilities at the front of this process, and then we expected in a matter of days to be able to turn over the primary responsibility to others," Gates told reporters traveling with him to Russia. "We will continue to support the coalition, we will be a member of the coalition, we will have a military role in the coalition, but we will not have the preeminent role."

The two key possibilities, he said, are a combined British-French command or the use of a NATO command. He acknowledged there is "some sensitivity on the part of the Arab League to being seen to be operating under a NATO umbrella."

NATO's top decision-making body approved late Sunday a military plan to implement the U.N. arms embargo on Libya, but failed to agree on a plan for the alliance to enforce the no-fly zone over this north African country.

Palestinian militants fired two rockets into southern Israel on Sunday and Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in a new outburst along the volatile border with Gaza.

The violence came a day after Palestinian militants fired more than 50 mortar shells into Israel - the heaviest Palestinian barrage since a bruising Israeli military offensive in Gaza two years ago.

Both sides have largely honored an informal cease-fire since the 2009 war, in which about 1,400 Palestinians were killed, including militants and civilians. Israel says Hamas has rebuilt its arsenal, and a pattern of rocket attacks and Israeli reprisals has escalated in recent weeks.

The Hamas-allied Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for Sunday morning's rocket attack, which caused no injuries or damage.

Militants in Gaza fired another rocket into southern Israel in the evening, exploding near the city of Ashkelon. No one was hurt.

Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Adham Abu Salmia said rescue teams recovered the bodies of two Palestinian men who were killed overnight along the border. The Israeli military said soldiers spotted two Palestinians crawling toward the border with what appeared to be a bomb. Soldiers called on them to stop, and opened fire after they continued moving toward the border. Such clashes are common.

The top U.S. military officer acknowledged on Sunday that a no-fly zone over Libya could create a stalemate with Muammar Gaddafi's forces even as Western warplanes halted the Libyan leader's anti-rebel offensive at Benghazi.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the CBS program Face the Nation that the air mission in the North African country has a clear, limited scope.

But Mullen said the end-game of military action in Libya is "very uncertain." Asked if it could end in a stalemate with Gaddafi, Mullen replied: "I don't think that's for me to answer. Certainly, I recognize that's a possibility."

"It's very uncertain on how this ends," he added.

The aerial assault by U.S., French and British planes stopped an advance by Gaddafi's troops on the rebel-held city of Benghazi and killed at least 14 government soldiers.

The United States says the U.N.-endorsed intervention is aimed at forcing Gaddafi's troops into a ceasefire and end attacks on civilians who launched an uprising last month.

Libya's armed forces have issued a command to all units to observe an immediate ceasefire, a Libyan army spokesman said.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's meetings in Paris with the G8 foreign ministers on Monday left her European interlocutors with more questions than answers about the Obama administration's stance on intervention in Libya.

Inside the foreign ministers' meeting, a loud and contentious debate erupted about whether to move forward with stronger action to halt Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi's campaign against the Libyan rebels and the violence being perpetrated against civilians. Britain and France argued for immediate action while Germany and Russia opposed such a move, according to two European diplomats who were briefed on the meeting.

Clinton stayed out of the fray, repeating the administration's position that all options are on the table but not specifically endorsing any particular step. She also did not voice support for stronger action in the near term, such as a no-fly zone or military aid to the rebels, both diplomats said.

"The way the U.S. acted was to let the Germans and the Russians block everything, which announced for us an alignment with the Germans as far as we are concerned," one of the diplomats told The Cable.

Clinton's unwillingness to commit the United States to a specific position led many in the room to wonder exactly where the administration stood on the situation in Libya.

"Frankly we are just completely puzzled," the diplomat said. "We are wondering if this is a priority for the United States."

France is to host talks on Saturday with senior politicians to discuss what course of action to follow in Libya. The UK's Prime Minister David Cameron says Britain will send fighter jets "in the coming hours" to enforce the no-fly zone.

Prime Minister David Cameron says Britain will send Typhoon and Tornado fighter jets "in the coming hours" to help enforce a no-fly zone over Libya.

Cameron told lawmakers Friday that Britain will join a U.N.-authorized operation to stop Moammar Gadhafi from launching "a brutal attack using air, land and sea forces" on the rebel-held city of Benghazi.Prime Minister David Cameron says Britain will send Typhoon and Tornado fighter jets "in the coming hours" to help enforce a no-fly zone over Libya.

Cameron told lawmakers Friday that Britain will join a U.N.-authorized operation to stop Moammar Gadhafi from launching "a brutal attack using air, land and sea forces" on the rebel-held city of Benghazi.

A planned press conference Saturday featuring President Barack Obama and new Brazilian President Dilma Vana Rousseff has been scratched, even before Obama departed Washington for his five-day Latin America trip.

The two leaders were scheduled to take questions Saturday morning at the Palacio do Planalto in Brasilia after a bilateral meeting there, but the White House issued a schedule Friday evening noting that the two leaders will make statements but do not plan to entertain inquiries from the press

A White House official said the change was at the request of the Brazilians. "The Brazilians said they would prefer this format," said the U.S. aide, who asked not to be named.

Brazilian press reports say Rousseff may be less than eager to be questioned about why the U.S. has yet to endorse a permanent U.N. Security Council seat for Brazil.