Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

The children fleeing Central America will not stop coming because of the violence that the U.S. created

children at us border
© Edel Rodriguez
On Friday, June 11, David de la O disappeared. He was walking home from school in rural Santa Cruz Michapa, a small city in El Salvador about an hour's drive from San Salvador, the nation's capital. David's family searched for him all night, without success. The next morning, his remains were found buried in an abandoned field outside town. He had been stabbed four times in the torso; his head, arms and legs had been severed. David was only 11 years old. In fourth grade, he had been learning long division and multiplication and practicing verb tenses. With no leads to go on, the police speculated that David was killed and dismembered by gang members because he refused to join their ranks. (He went to school in an area controlled by one gang and lived in a neighborhood dominated by another.)

David's murder wasn't widely reported in the country. It was yet another incident of violence - a terrible one, but one of many. The day before David was killed, two other teenagers, 15 and 16, had their throats slit and were dumped in another abandoned field on the outskirts of the capital.

To avoid becoming the victims of gang violence, tens of thousands of children like David have fled El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras for the United States. As their numbers skyrocket, lawmakers in Washington have sought to "repatriate" these refugees as quickly as possible. The Obama administration initially sought to change the 2008 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act to allow the 52,000 or so child migrants who have arrived on US soil in the last nine months to be deported without going before an immigration judge. (Under the TVPRA, unaccompanied minors from countries that do not share a border with the United States are handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services, then go before an immigration court that will determine their fate; those hailing from Mexico, on the other hand, can accept "voluntary deportation" and return immediately.) The White House has since backed off this proposal and has instead asked Congress for $3.7 billion to ramp up enforcement and hire more judges to expedite the removal process. Republicans in the House of Representatives - including the GOP's standard-bearer on immigration issues, Ted Cruz - continue to press for the TVPRA to be changed.

Comment: For a glimpse into the destruction America brought to El Salvador read: Romney's Death Squad Ties: Bain Launched With Millions From Oligarchs Behind Salvadoran Atrocities


Penis Pump

Best of the Web: The emperor's rage: Let chaos envelop the world!

Finis Gloriae Mundi
© Juan Valdez Leal
Chaos reigns and spreads as enraged leaders in the US, Europe and their clients and allies pursue genocidal wars. Mercenary wars in Syria; Israel's terror bombing on Gaza; proxy wars in the Ukraine, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Somalia.

Tens of millions of refugees flee scenes of total destruction. Nothing is sacred. There are no sanctuaries. Homes, schools, hospitals and entire families are targeted for destruction.

Chaos by Design

At the center of chaos, the wild-eyed President Obama strikes blindly, oblivious of the consequences, willing to risk a financial debacle or a nuclear war. He enforces sanctions against Iran; imposes sanctions on Russia; sets up missile bases five launch minutes from Moscow; sends killer drones against Pakistan, Yemen and Afghanistan; arms mercenaries in Syria; trains and equips Kurds in Iraq and pays for Israel's savagery against Gaza.

Nothing works.

The Chaos President is blind to the fact that starving one's adversaries does not secure submission: it unites them to resist. Regime change, imposing proxies by force and subterfuge, can destroy the social fabric of complex societies: million of peasants and workers become uprooted refugees. Popular social movements are replaced by organized criminal gangs and bandit armies.

Chess

Nick Turse: China, America, and a new Cold War in Africa?

vultures over africa
For the last two years, TomDispatch Managing Editor Nick Turse has been following the Pentagon and the latest U.S. global command, AFRICOM, as they oversaw the expanding operations of the American military across that continent: drones, a special ops surge, interventions, training missions, bases (even if not called bases), proxy wars. Short of a major conflict, you name it and it's probably happening. Washington's move into Africa seems connected as well to the destabilization of parts of that continent and the rise of various terror groups across it, another subject Nick has been following. With rare exceptions, only recently have aspects of the Obama administration's largely below-the-radar-screen "pivot" to Africa made it into the mainstream media. Even more recently, global chaos from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria to Ukraine has driven it out again. As a result, most Americans have no sense of how their future and Africa's are being entwined in possibly explosive ways.

With this in mind, and with the support of the Nation Institute's Investigative Fund (as well as the generosity of Adelaide Gomer), Nick has gone to Tanzania and South Sudan to explore the situation further himself. Today, as the first fruits of that trip, TomDispatch has a major story on a development that has, until now, remained distinctly below the radar screen: the Africa-wide contest between the globe's "sole superpower," the U.S., and its preeminent rising economic power, China, over which will benefit most from the exploitation of that continent.

Over the next several months, there will be more pieces from Nick on America's growing stake in and effect on Africa. The next will address a looming crisis in the world's youngest nation. He offers a preview: "My aid agency contacts say that, in September, the United Nations will officially declare a famine in large swaths of South Sudan. As one humanitarian worker here put it to me, add famine to war and you have a powder keg. 'It's going to get worse,' says another, 'before it gets better.'" Tom

Star of David

SOTT Focus: The "Middle Ground" Fallacy in Gaza

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I had a discussion on Facebook recently over the Gaza conflict. I was posting about the horrific abuses of Israel, he was countering with the supposed equal abuses of Hamas. After we traded points a few times I came to see where our difference of opinion actually lay. You see, fundamentally we both see things from the same side - war is ridiculous and the atrocities of this conflict are completely inexcusable. Killing children or civilians is completely psychopathic. We both want an end to this conflict. And yet we were arguing.

Where my friend was hung up was that the article I had posted wasn't "balanced". It was calling out Israel on war crimes, human rights violations and the like, but it wasn't citing any of the equally horrific things that Hamas has done. The familiar "human shield" argument was trotted out, as could be expected.

On the one hand, this position is really indicative of someone who is not properly informed and relies on liberal media for information. In other words, it's the Zionist position, that both sides are equally at fault and that the situation is "complicated", and that Israel has a right to defend itself (against its prisoners, apparently).

Stormtrooper

SOTT EXCLUSIVE: Kiev regime fuels bloody civil war with nationwide military recruitment drive

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Latest reports from Ukraine indicate that the Kiev junta has begun forceful mobilization of all men from 18-60 years of age. Everyday more and more families receiving draft notices. Young men are being abducted on streets or on trains and are being taken away by force. They are being rounded up and loaded on trucks bound for the country's restive Eastern parts, like cattle to slaughter.


Comment: Must watch documentary - look at what the Western corporate media isn't showing you:

Ukraine Crisis: Death and destruction continues in Eastern Ukraine


USA

Report finds government agents 'directly involved' in many U.S. terror plots

FBI
© Police State USA
A new report has revealed a disturbing set of tactics used in the pursuit of domestic terrorism in the USA. Among the findings was the fact that the FBI directly and repeatedly involves itself in planning a large percentage of foiled terror plots - often by convincing impressionable or mentally disabled people to join FBI plots, then arresting them.

Human Rights Watch published the 214-page report, titled "Illusion of Justice: Human Rights Abuses in US Terrorism Prosecutions." It documents a number of cases which the group describes as being marred by overly-aggressive prosecution, entrapment, and draconian treatment of prisoners.

"Americans have been told that their government is keeping them safe by preventing and prosecuting terrorism inside the U.S.," said Andrea Prasow, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report. "But take a closer look, and you realize that many of these people would never have committed a crime if not for law enforcement encouraging, pressuring, and sometimes paying them to commit terrorist acts."

Post-9/11 anti-terrorism investigations have often utilized secret evidence, anonymous juries, extensive pretrial incarceration, and reached convictions for allegations significantly removed from actual plots, the report shows.

While noting that some terror plots are genuine, the report contends that "in some cases the FBI may have created terrorists out of law-abiding individuals by suggesting the idea of taking terrorist action or encouraging the target to act."

Star of David

Violence in Gaza unthinkable: H.H. the Dalai Lama of Tibet

Southern Gaza Strip
© Unknown
Dharamshala: - Describing the ongoing violent conflict between Palestine and Israel in Gaza as 'unimaginable', The spiritual leader of Tibet His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said he did not expect such sort of violence from people who claim to hold religious principles.

"Unthinkable. All major religious traditions - Islam, Christianity, Hindu, of course, Jainism and Buddhism - teach us the practice of compassion, love, forgiveness, tolerance. So then a person who believes in certain faith, why do you involve in such violence?," His Holiness the Dalai Lama told media-persons on Monday, July 21 at Kangra airport in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, India.

Comment: Benjamin Netanyahu and his ilk do not care for "life".




Pirates

Sick! Gaza invasions used as showcase for Israeli arms dealers

Israel continues to reject Hamas's offer of a ten-year ceasefire because it would undermine Israeli arms sales, which reached $7 billion in 2012


Transcript below.

Evil Rays

Silencing the truth: Israel killing, intimidating journalists amid Gaza communication blackout

Israel is targeting journalists in the Gaza Strip like it did during its last two major attacks on the 1.8 million Palestinians there.

Since the current assault began on 7 July, Israel has killed at least seven Palestinian journalists and media workers and directly struck at least four media offices. The latest journalist to be killed, Rami Rayyan, was reporting on families going to the market during what they thought was a four-hour ceasefire on Wednesday afternoon when Israel shelled the Shujaiya market.

The Electronic Intifada spoke with journalist Yousef Al-Helou just after the attack.

"Journalists say it is an Israeli attempt to silence the truth," Al-Helou said. "But Palestinian journalists are determined to continue their work because they say that it is their duty to expose Israeli actions in Gaza that amount to war crimes." (Listen to the full interview with Yousef Al-Helou via the audio player at the top of this page, or read the rush transcript below.)

Attacks on media centers

Gaza media bombed
© Mohammed Asad/APA images

The top floors of a building housing media offices were bombed by Israel on 29 July.
On Tuesday, 29 July, Israel bombed an Al-Aqsa TV office in the northeast part of Gaza City. Forty-five minutes later, in another part of the city, Israel struck an Al-Aqsa radio office. No one was killed in those attacks, but the offices suffered damage to their media equipment. Both the TV and radio stations resumed broadcasting after brief interruptions.

Last week on 27 July, an Israeli rocket hit another Al-Aqsa TV office, and on 22 July the offices of Al Jazeera were struck.

While the Israeli military apologized for firing at Qatar-based Al Jazeera, calling it an "error" and claiming that the military would "investigate" the incident, Israel has not conceded responsibility for hitting the Palestinian broadcasting networks. In an emailed statement, the Israeli military justified the strikes, saying they were aimed at "the propaganda dissemination capabilities used to broadcast the messages of [Hamas'] military wing."

The journalist Yousef Al-Helou said that Palestinian journalists have received text messages warning them of their danger: "Now the Israeli army has sent six messages to journalist in Gaza ordering them to stay away, or saying that the Israeli army will not be responsible for your safety."

Comment: Truth-lovers everywhere must commend the bravery of these journalists.


Vader

Israel's psychopathic doctrine to justify murdering over 1,000 Gazans

wounded Palestinian Gaza
A Palestinian hugs his father who was wounded in an Israeli strike on a compound housing a UN school in Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, following their arrival at the Kamal Edwan hospital in Beit Lahia, on July 30, 2014
The worsening of life for people in Gaza is a deliberate goal of the Israeli military.

Israel is waging war on civilians in Gaza. Ordinary Palestinians, television stations, schools, hospitals, power plants and water facilities are all targets in the eyes of the Israeli army, one of the most powerful militaries in the world.

On Monday night, in what is being described as the most intense Israeli bombardment since the assault began three weeks ago, the air force bombed Gaza's sole power plant, and killed over 100 people.

It is a violation of international law to destroy civilian infrastructure and lives if there is no concrete military advantage in doing so. "Israel is repeatedly and flagrantly violating the law of armed conflict," a group of international legal scholars said in a statement released this week. "Most of the recent heavy bombings in Gaza lack an acceptable military justification and, instead, appear to be designed to terrorize the civilian population."

But Israel, shielded from accountability by the U.S., continues to violate the laws of war. In fact, it is following a specific military doctrine developed by Israeli military officials that calls for punishing the civilian population in the territory where resistance to Israeli actions emanates from. Its purpose is to restore Israeli deterrence; to make Israel's armed enemies think twice before resisting, a goal Israel attempts to meet by wantonly destroying civilian infrastructure. Another goal is to turn the civilian population against the authorities that rule them. In this war, it's Hamas Israel wants to weaken.


Comment: But really, it's not collective punishment of the civilian population. The psychopathic principle Israel goes by is that anyone breathing in Gaza is a terrorist.


The Dahiyeh doctrine, as it is known, was first used in 2006. In the summer of that year, Israel went to war in Lebanon to battle the militant group Hezbollah, which was created in the late 1980s for the express purpose of resisting Israel's occupation of Lebanon. Sparked by an attack on Israeli soldiers and the subsequent capturing of two soldiers to press for the release of Hezbollah prisoners in Israel, the 2006 assault on Lebanon inflicted enormous damage on the country. Over 1,000 Lebanese, the majority of them civilians, were killed.