If there's one thing we should have learned over the past 13 years of war, it's that war is good business for those in the business of war. Unfortunately, while profits for the Pentagon's contractors increase, so does the cost to taxpayers in billions in waste, fraud, and abuse. As America embarks on yet another war in the Middle East, Congress needs to act now to stop this unjustified bonanza for the Pentagon's contractors.

The most recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan offer an ominous example about what can happen when the rush to war is met with sharp spending increases coupled with little to no oversight or fiscal restraint. The Commission on Wartime Contracting -- a bipartisan congressional body -- estimates that there was $30 to $60 billion in waste, fraud and abuse associated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- a total of $12 million per day. Even worse, at least $6 billion is completely missing, never accounted for, gone forever. That is a stunning amount of taxpayer dollars -- yours and mine -- to simply disappear into the wind.

Among the most egregious examples of corporate and governmental malfeasance during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was a multibillion-dollar no-bid contract for Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) division to rebuild and operate Iraqi oil fields. Halliburton was found guilty of price gouging on everything from the supply of oil for military vehicles to feeding the troops; shoddy workmanship that resulted in scores of unfinished buildings and inadequate supplies of electricity; and life-threatening situations like defective showers that electrocuted a soldier. A long list of other examples is available in the reports of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, whose investigations helped spur the convictions of 82 companies and individuals of illegal activities connected to contracting in Iraq.

It has now happened for the second year in a row.

For the second year in a row, America's richest 14 individuals made more from their annual investments than the $80 billion provided for people in need of food. Nearly half of the food-deprived are children. Perversely, the food stamp program was CUT because of a lack of federal funding.

In a testament to the inability -- or unwillingness -- of Congress to do anything about the incessant upward re-distribution of America's wealth, the richest 14 Americans increased their wealth from $507 billion to $589 billion in ONE YEAR from their investment earnings. As stated by Forbes, "All together the 400 wealthiest Americans are worth a staggering $2.29 trillion, up $270 billion from a year ago."

Billions of dollars of wealth, derived from years of American productivity, have been transferred to a few financially savvy and well-connected individuals who have spent a generation shaping trading rules and tax laws to their own advantage. It's so inexplicably one-sided that the 2013 investment earnings of the richest 1% of Americans ($1.8 trillion) was more than the entire budget for Social Security ($860 billion), Medicare ($524 billion), and Medicaid ($304 billion).

Why Does So Little of Our National Wealth Go to Feed People or Provide Jobs?

The fruits of American productivity go to the richest Americans, who can afford to hold onto their fortunes, defer taxes indefinitely, and then pay a smaller capital gains rate when they eventually decide to cash in. Worse yet, they can stash their winnings overseas, tax-free. It is estimated that $7.6 trillion of personal wealth is hidden in tax havens. That means, stunningly, that $1 of every $12 of worldwide wealth is hidden in a haven.

ISIS jihadi fighters have been using bullets manufactured in the United States during the militant group's bloody campaign across Iraq and Syria, according to a new report.
Weapons-tracking organization Conflict Armament Research worked alongside Kurdish forces to recover more than 1,700 cartridges used by ISIS. More than 20 percent of the ammunition was U.S.-made. "[ISIS] appear to have acquired a large part of their current arsenal from stocks seized from, or abandoned by, Iraqi defense and security forces," the report said. Most of the U.S. ammo was manufactured in the first decade of the 21st century, when Washington was bolstering Iraqi forces following the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The ammo recovered in the study came from 21 different countries and dated from 1945 to present day. The biggest contributors were China and the Soviet Union, with most of their ammo originating in the 1970s and 1980s. The study also found modern Iranian ammunition. "If transferred deliberately, the presence of this ammunition outside of Iran violates U.N. Security Council Resolution 1737 (2006), which prohibits Iran's export of ammunition," it noted.

Conflict Armament Research Investigators found this expended ammunition at ISIS firing positions in northern Iraq. The bullets were manufactured at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Missouri.

It was just yesterday when, in an interview with CNN, Israel PM Netanyahu reminded the world that before there was ISIS, there was Israel's most loathed enemy Iran, and told Fareed Zakaria that in addition to combating ISIS, Netanyahu said Israel and other moderate Arab states see Iran's nuclear program as a "twin" challenge that goes hand-in-hand with stopping the spread of radical Islam. From that point on it was only a matter of time before something exploded.

That something took place a few hours ago when a large explosion took place near a suspected nuclear site in Iran has reportedly killed two people and according to the Washington Free Beacon, prompted speculation of sabotage at a military site long suspected of housing Tehran's clandestine nuclear activities, according to Iran's Defense Industries Organization (DIO), which operates under the country's Ministry of Defense.

The Free Beacon, citing Fars New Agency, reports that one explosion rocked a production plant late Sunday night in east Tehran, near the Parchin nuclear site. The explosion at a facility referred to as a "production plant" caused a fire that killed two workers, according to Fars, which cited information provided by Iran's DIO. Fars first reported news of the explosion, claiming that it took place at an "explosive material factory" near Parchin. According to Iran opposition sources, the blast killed at least four military personnel.

As Martin Armstrong exclaims, Obama is out of control. According to NewZimbabwe.com, Washington has said it will accelerate sanctions imposed against Harare in 2003, due to the Robert Mugabe-led government's closer ties with Russia over the US$3 billion Darwendale platinum project.

Herald columnist Nathaniel Manheru (who is thought to be Mugabe's spokesman) reported, Washington explained its expectations on Zimbabwe, namely that Zimbabwe was expected (read required) to support those sanctions by avoiding any association with companies sanctioned by the Americans and their Western allies, or their subsidiaries or affiliates.

Manheru said "it was ridiculous for the US to refuse to lift sanctions against Harare and then demand support for its measures against Moscow... This is where I am tempted to tell the American government to go and hang, hang on a banana tree, bums up."

The US would love to break Hong Kong away from mainland China or to goad Beijing into overreacting to the demonstrations, and that is what it actively seeks to achieve through NGOs, Dr. Conn Hallinan, from Foreign Policy in Focus, told RT.

RT: The protests have continued unabated for almost a week now, with Friday marked by street clashes. Where do you see it going from here?

Conn Hallinan: The thing is that the demonstrations themselves certainly have their own legitimacy. Hong Kong is one of the most expensive places to live in the world. I think the minimum wage in Hong Kong is around $3.20 an hour. I think what you have is a kind of a layer of very wealthy on the top, and then a layer of the most of the people in Hong Kong that are legitimately stressed by the cost of living, the cost of education, etc.

And of course most people want a say how they are governed, and the way that they are governed. My concern with some of the Hong Kong demonstrations is that this is a case in which the US is also very active through non-governmental organizations, specifically the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the US Agency for International Development, and other groups like Freedom House. Those organizations are less concerned with democracy than they are destabilization. Those same groups were very active in Ukraine, prior to the coup. In fact the US poured about $5 billion into Ukraine over the period of several years and led to the situation perfectly where legitimate concerns about corruption were turned into a coup d'état.


My concern in the case of China is that there is tension between the US, and China, and Japan over the East and South China seas. And then these demonstrations started up. My concern is that legitimate demands may be manipulated in favor of things that don't really have to do with democracy and economic well-being.

At the recent United Nations Security Council (UNSC) led by President Obama its members have unanimously adopted a resolution to stem the flow of foreigners into the ranks of extremist organizations such as the Islamic State. On Wednesday, September 24, all the fifteen Security Council members voted unanimously to bind the UN Member States to adopt laws under which their citizens won't be able to fight under the banners of Islamist groups or recruit other citizens to do so, unless they are willing to go to jail.

Perhaps some people could marvel at Obama's selfless effort to lead the fight against the new monster. But those better informed in today's international politics, especially those introduced to Wahington's cunning plans will ask a simple question: Where did all these organizations, Al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and now Khorasan Group come from, how could they possibly reach such strength that now the international community must face them? The track record of Al Qaeda is carefully documented and well known, its leadership, that was headed by now dead Osama bin Laden, is handsomely paid by the CIA at the expense of US taxpayers. The rest of the above mentioned terrorist groups are funded with the money provided by the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf. They have been created on Syrian soil by the West in order to overthrow the legitimately elected government of Bashar al-Assad. None other than the US president issued the order to train and arm them. There is no need to prove anything since the actions of the United States have been carefully documented. Barack Obama himself admitted that in recent years some 15 thousand foreign fighters have been brought to Syria from more than 80 countries!

Along with these actions, Barack Obama in the spirit of the Nobel Peace Laureate created another so-called coalition to launch air strikes in Syria and Iraq. This fact should be emphasized, the coalition was not created to bring peace to this highly trouble-prone region, but for carrying out military actions, to further inflate the fire. Hence the Middle East will witness even more deaths and suffering. A peculiar fact of this "pro-peace" coalition are its members: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, UAE, and Bahrain. There's a saying in all languages ​​- "Tell me who are your friends are and I will tell you who you are". This saying exemplifies the case. The so-called American Democrats are friends with the kings of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan, with the emir of Qatar and the UAE sheiks, it seems that the US president wouldn't mind being named a king as well.

It seems that with the shelling of a school in the Kievsky district of Donetsk on Wednesday (bringing the death toll in eastern Ukraine to well over 3,500), the ceasefire between Kiev and the Russian-backed separatists will likely not hold. And while most of the attention with regard to the economic costs associated with the continuing conflict has focused on how high a price the West should oblige Russia to pay for its role in arming the rebels, more attention ought to be paid to what the Ukraine crisis may have in store for the increasingly fragile eurozone economies, as well as the consequent risk it may pose to the not-particularly-robust U.S. economy.


Concurrent with the deteriorating conditions on the ground in eastern Ukraine, the desire in Europe to forge ahead with a diplomatic solution to the crisis seems oddly attenuated. Yesterday, only hours after the shelling in Donetsk, EU Commission president Manuel Barroso issued a strongly worded rejection of Russian president Vladimir Putin's call for the re-negotiation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement in order to address Moscow's concerns over how the agreement will impact its economy.

Barroso's economic acumen seems to be about on par with his political acumen; readers may recall it was he who in December 2013 called on the then peaceful anti-government protesters in Kiev to the barricades, summoning them to "have the courage and go out and fight." In any event, the idea that the eurozone, the United States and Japan together have enough leverage to maneuver Russia towards their preferred outcome via sanctions on trade and energy has been given wide currency over the course of the ongoing crisis. It is a claim that merits closer scrutiny.

The Khorasan Group, the Al-Qaeda-linked cell that just landed on the US intelligence radar last month, allegedly has Americans in its ranks fighting in the Middle East whom the FBI cannot prevent from re-entering the country.

Last month, the world was introduced to yet another terrorist group - the Khorasan Group - a veteran group of Al-Qaeda-affiliated radicals purportedly running amok in the Middle East, which the head of the FBI says is "bent on destruction" - and most specifically in the United States.

"Khorasan was working and you know, may still be working on an effort to attack the United States or our allies, and looking to do it very, very soon," James Comey said in an interview with 60 Minutes, a CBS news program.

The FBI chief, who has kept a low profile since becoming head of the internal intelligence agency last year, refused to put a time stamp on when an attack would occur.

"I can't sit here and tell you whether it's their plan is tomorrow or three weeks or three months from now," he said. "Given our visibility we know they're serious people, bent on destruction. And so we have to act as if it's coming tomorrow."

Perhaps most shocking, Comey revealed that there are about "a dozen or so" American citizens fighting in Syria on the side of Islamic fundamentalist groups. Moreover, the government knows the identity of the individuals who, as American passport holders, are free to reenter the United States.

"Ultimately, an American citizen, unless their passport's revoked, is entitled to come back. So, someone who's fought with ISIL, with American passport wants to come back, we will track them very carefully," he said.

Comey admitted that he knew the identity of the Americans fighting alongside radical groups in the Middle East, while suggesting there could be others he is unaware of added, "I hesitate only because I don't know what I don't know."


For many Americans, such revelations may sound incredible for a group that nobody had heard of before the United States starting bombing northern Syria last month.

Speaking on the sidelines of the fourth Caspian Sea Littoral States summit in Astrakhan, Russian omnipotent president, Vladimir Putin warned the White House to desist from supporting Islamist terrorists who are operating in Iraq and neighboring Syria, reported ISNA news agency.

"American government is pursuing a double-track policy for many years and this will bring deleterious consequences not only in the restive Middle-East region but also will have global effects" RT quoted the Russian president as saying on Sunday.

Vladimir Putin criticized American administration over supporting Islamic fundamentalism and added that America will be the first victim of current wrong policies adopted by President Obama.

During a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Kremlin's strongman underlined the urgent need for intentional consensus to tackle the imminent threat of terrorist organizations such as ISIS and al-Nusra Front.

"We have a naval fleet in Syrian port of Tartus and we shall defend our vital interests in that region even if we would encounter hostilities from American oil-rich Arab puppet regimes" said the Russian president, alluding to Saudi Arabia and Qatar which are inciting Syria's civil war.