Many Civilians Are Being Killed By Drones

Law school teacher Marjorie Cohn - president of the National Lawyers Guild - writes:

Obama has killed more people with drones than died on 9/11. Many of those killed were civilians, and only a tiny percentage of the dead were al-Qaeda or Taliban leaders.

She may be right ...

The Council on Foreign Relations estimates that U.S. drone strikes outside of Iraq and Afghanistan have killed 3,674 people.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports that up to 4,404 people have been killed - just in Pakistan and Yemen alone - between 2004 and 2014.

While it's hard to estimate how many additional people have been killed by drone in Iraq and Afghanistan, a December 2012 report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that US and UK forces had carried out over 1,000 drone strikes in Afghanistan over the previous five years. Given that numerous people are often killed by each drone strike, it is reasonable to assume that several thousand people have been killed by drone in that country.

And many Iraqis have also been killed by drones ... long before ISIS even appeared on the scene. So - altogether - the number of people killed by drone is probably well above five thousand.

In contrast, under 3,000 people were killed on 9/11.

But aren't drone strikes targeted attacks on terrorists ... unlike 9/11, which was an attack on civilians?

Unfortunately, no ...

The UK government and its associated bureaucracy is colluding with powerful global agritech corporations to get genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into Britain. Politicians and officials whose views of GMOs are based on ignorance or whose statements are distorted as a result of their conflicts of interest have been spearheading this campaign.

Government departments, academics and industry lobby and media bodies are working to push a pro-GM agenda and weaken regulations regarding GMOs and are engaged in a public relations campaign in an attempt to win over a skeptical public.

It may become a "duty" of nurseries and elementary schools in the UK to track and report any child that shows signs of sympathy with terrorists or is a risk of potential radicalization, according to the government's plans aimed at preventing extremism.

A consultation document by the Home Office on ways to enhance the UK's anti-terrorism system, the so-called "Prevent" strategy, calls for senior management and governors to "assess the risk of pupils being drawn into terrorism," manifested through youths' extremist ideas that may breed terrorist ideology.

The recent appointment of the austerity-loving U.S. citizen and investment firm chief Natalie Jaresko as Ukraine's Finance Minister continues a trend that has seen one Eastern European country after another appointing or electing U.S. citizens as major government officials. Jaresko had Ukrainian citizenship conferred on her by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as she arrived in Kiev to take up her new post in the government of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, himself a former legal U.S. resident who has been linked to the crypto-Satanic Church of Scientology.

Jaresko is involved in contentious asset redistribution court battles with her ex-husband, Ihor Figlus. Together, the two managed the Kiev-based Horizon Capital, established 20 years ago with a $150 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Horizon Capital operated the Emerging Europe Growth Fund, a group charged with illegal insider trading of Ukrainian securities. According to court divorce documents, Horizon Capital bought Ukrainian artwork, Georgian carpets, expensive cars, and antique furniture, all of which are now subject to the battle for ownership between Jaresko and Figlus. Jaresko also managed the USAID-financed Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF), a CIA contrivance that steered U.S. investment dollars into "pro-democracy" movements in Moldova and Belarus and laundered much of the $5 billion in U.S. aid for the Maidan Square coup in Kiev that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych.

Jaresko's arrival in Kiev was shortly followed by that of former Reno, Nevada assistant police chief Ron Glensor,who became an official adviser to the Ukrainian police with an initial posting at the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Khmelnytsky region. Glensor has been very active with the U.S. Department of Justice's International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP). Glensor is also a former fellow of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) in Washington, D.C. In August 1999, The Progressive magazine reported that, "Janice Stromsen, a career employee of the Justice Department who served as ICITAP's director, resisted the program's takeover by CIA elements. In February [1999], Stromsen was relieved of her duties after complaining to the Justice Department Inspector General that ICITAP was being used by the CIA to recruit agents among foreign police officials."

As the "convenient" and "accidental" airdrops of weapons and supplies by the US and NATO into the hands of ISIS and al-Qaeda jihadists fighting inside both Syria and Iraq begin to draw more attention throughout largely alternative media outlets, such convenient mistakes are also being questioned by national governments, particularly those who may be in the crosshairs of NATO in the very near future.

Individuals who have come to question the nature of the allegedly accidental air drops are legion, but one of the more recent and high profile skeptics is the Commander of Iran's Basij Force, Brigadier General Mohammed Reza Naqdi.

In an address to a group of Basij forces on January 5, Naqdi stated that "The US directly supports the ISIL in Iraq and the US planes drop the needed aids and weapons for ISIL in Iraq ..." In addition, he stated that the US Embassy in Baghdad is the command center for ISIL and other "takfiri" militants.

Indeed, while the United States military portrays the receipt of weapons and supplies by ISIS as entirely accidental, Naqdi presents the situation as quite the opposite. Contradicting the propaganda and stated aims of the US military, Naqdi stated that the Iraqi forces have managed to retrieve aid that was actually intended for ISIS fighters, not the other way around.

Naqdi, however, is merely the latest official in the region who has suggested that the U.S. "assault" on ISIS is half-hearted at best. Iraqi Member of Parliament Majid al-Gharawi recently stated that all information available "pointed out that US planes are supplying ISIL organization, not only in Salahuddin province, but also other provinces," according to Iraq TradeLink.

He also stated that the United States is "not serious in fighting against the ISIL organization, because they have the technological power to determine the presence of ISIL gunmen and destroy them in one month [but have not done so]."

Eleven people were killed and 10 people wounded, five of them seriously, in the shooting in eastern Paris

Eleven people were killed and 10 injured in shooting at the Paris offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, already the target of a firebombing in 2011 after publishing cartoons deriding Islam's Prophet Mohammad on its cover, police spokesman said.

Five of the injured were in a critical condition, said the spokesman.

Separately, the government said it was raising France's national security level to the highest notch.

French TV channel iTELE quoted a witness as saying he saw the incident from a building nearby in the heart of the French capital.

'There is only talk of extremism and Islamic State, but not the women and children who are killed, the bodies torn apart, the stomachs blown open, which is what doctors are dealing with each day.'
The United States has entered the new year pledging to lead a war on ISIS for "as long as it takes to prevail." But what of the Syrian civilians whose lives have been upended by years of conflict and whose plight is used, in part, to justify U.S.-led military intervention?


According to a group of Syrian doctors and aid workers, ordinary people are being neglected by the international community.

"Between 30 to 60 people are dying each day since the bombings started," said Tawfik Shamaa, spokesperson for the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organizations (UOSSM), an association of 14 non-governmental organizations that provide aid to regions of the Levant, including besieged areas of Syria.

The organization met on Monday with officials of France - whose government, a participant in the U.S.-led war, provides a majority of the group's funds, according to Reuters.

"There is only talk of extremism and Islamic State, but not the women and children who are killed, the bodies torn apart, the stomachs blown open, which is what doctors are dealing with each day," Shamaa continued.

The statements come amid grim warnings from United Nations officials about the crisis of civilian displacement.

Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, declared at an annual meeting of Turkey's ambassadors in Ankara on Tuesday, "The Syria and Iraq mega-crises, the multiplication of new crises and the old crises that seem never to die have created the worst displacement situation in the world since World War II."

"This is a world where conflicts multiply and the old ones are not solved and the result is, of course, a dramatic impact from the humanitarian point of view," Guterres added.

The United Nations announced in November 2014 that at least 13.6 million people have been displaced by the wars in Iraq and Syria - a number that has since risen during an especially violent time for both countries.

© Unknown
John McCain in Syria. In the foreground at right is the director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force. In the doorway, center, Mohammad Nour.

Syria has complained to the United Nations after U.S. Republican Senator John McCain, former French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner and other prominent figures reportedly entered the country without visas, with that violating its sovereignty.

Syria's U.N. ambassador Bashar Jaafari called on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the 15-member Security Council to take "the necessary measures against their nationals who enter Syrian territory illegally."
McCain paid a surprise visit to Syria in May 2013, meeting with rebels after crossing the border from Turkey.

Jaafari said the Republican Senator met with leaders of the al-Nusra Front, which the Security Council has branded a terrorist organization.

Kouchner traveled to Kurdish areas in northern Syria in November last year.

Another U.S. diplomat, David Galbraith, visited Syria in December, and a former Kuwaiti lawmaker, Walid al-Tabtaba'i, was cited for his 2013 trip in Jaafari's letter, according to AFP.

Galbraith was accompanied by three U.S. political and military officials during his visit last month while Walid al-Tabtaba'i brought money and weapons to the rebels, and took part in combat in September 2013, the envoy said.

"Such actions are a blatant violation of Syria's sovereignty and the resolutions of the Security Council concerning Syria," wrote Jaafari in the letter dated December 24.

McCain dismissed the Syrian complaint while berating the international community for not acting to oust the Assad regime.

"It is a sad but unsurprising truth that the Assad regime is less concerned with its massacre of more than 200,000 men, women and children than it is my visit with those brave Syrians fighting for their freedom and dignity," McCain said in a statement.


"The fact that the international community has done virtually nothing to bring down this terrible regime despite its atrocities is a stain on our collective moral conscience."

With 2014 fresh in our rear view mirror, an honest examination of events and developments of what's been happening in America to whistleblowers and journalists since 9/11 under the Bush-Obama regime seems a worthwhile review, however disturbing ands foreboding. By definition a whistleblower is an individual who reports an employer's misconduct. The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 (WPA) is a law that protectsfederal government employees in the United States from retaliatory action for voluntarily disclosing information about dishonest or illegal activities occurring within a government organization. Yet despite these supposed legal protections in place, those who have gone public disclosing illicit and immoral behavior by the federal government have been consistently singled out for discrimination and excessive punishment.

In fact, more American citizens have been indicted for allegedly violating the Espionage Act of 1917 under the current president than all other previous presidents combined. Though the law was designed to punish WWI German spies, and rarely used since for indicting those selling secrets to the enemy or efforts to undermine the American way of life, it is completely obsolete. Yet it is being misused by Obama for purely political purposes to shut down the truth. The Obama administration has also turned down more Freedom of Information Act requests than any other prior presidency with each year the denial rate rising. 2013 was 57% more than the year before, with over half the total requests rejected. Of course Obama's mantra excuse is always using the "national security" card. He has also jailed more whistleblowers and journalists than any other president. By his over the top, punitive methods, Obama has declared war on the first amendment right to a free press in America, threatening, harassing, indicting and imprisoning those brave enough to speak the truth, accusing them of treason when the president through his administration has repeatedly violated the very Constitution that he has sworn to protect and uphold as the so called leader of the free world. His malevolent attack on free speech is even more incriminating and inexcusable as a Harvard educated lawyer who once taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago.

With their war policies both domestic and abroad one and the same, Obama has carried the totalitarian torch handed him by the Bush-Cheney administration making the United States the world's worst human rights violator. But then they're all cast from the same psychopathic mold as mere public front men simply following orders from their oligarch puppet masters who own and control them along with virtually everything else on this planet.


The man who after the Bush nightmare exploited Americans' desperate need for hope and change campaigned on false promises that his administration would be far more open and transparent than his war criminal predecessor, pledging to be the most open and honest in US history. Instead Obama has only proven to be the most guarded, vindictive and secretive president in US history. With three quarters of Obama's two term reign of terror completed, let's look at the lives of a handful of Americans who have bravely spoken out since 9/11, some known and some lesser known. At great danger to themselves these individuals have exercised their legal rights under the Whistleblower Act and/or First Amendment and paid dearly for only doing the right thing. Their courage to expose government waste, corruption, fraud and its diabolical wrongdoing has been met with blatant retribution and extreme punishment that has systematically resulted in their unlawful firing, false imprisonment, character and career assassination and indeed even their political assassination and murder, all for standing up to injustice and wrongdoing for the greater good of Americans and humanity. These brave and honest individuals working in our government and in journalism should be heralded as our national heroes for their bold truth speaking, not silenced, harmed and/or destroyed by our own criminally treasonous rogue government.

Set aside for a moment the fact that the S&P 500 just closed down 4 days in a row - something which never happened in 2014. Zerhohedge had an interesting post today in which it wondered if Citibank was the next AIG after it discovered that Citi is now the largest single holder of derivatives in the U.S., with $70.3 trillion in notional exposure holdings.

Not pointed out by Zerohedge was an interesting relationship between Citi and Goldman Sachs. Recall, that Goldman Sachs was AIG's biggest counter-party. And the fact of the matter is that Goldman would have blown up along with AIG had the Government and the Fed - with close to a trillion dollars in taxpayer money - not bailed out AIG and the big banks. Let's wipe the lipstick off that pig and call it what it was:

An AIG/Goldman Sachs de facto collapse.

Recall that Henry Paulson was Treasury Secretary when Goldman de facto collapsed. Paulson was the former CEO of Goldman and had been appointed Treasury Secretary in July 2006. As it turns out, Goldman had been impaled on AIG's nuclear mortgage -derived credit default swaps, to which GS was the main counter-party. I have always suspected that Paulson was inserted into the Treasury post because "they" knew that eventually the big banks - led by Goldman - were going to hit the derivatives wall and a Wall Street bank representative inside the Treasury would be needed to fix the problem.