usa

Obama Administration Sabotages Nuclear Nonproliferation Conference

May 28, 2015 Joseph Gerson, www.truth-out.org Educate! Nuclear Weapons, usa, Wars and Militarism

So much for President Obama's commitment to a nuclear-weapons-free world. With its decision on May 22 to block the adoption of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Review Conference's consensus statement, the Obama administration gave the human species another hefty push toward nuclear catastrophe, shaking the foundations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). Why the sabotage? Well, for one thing, the draft text had the temerity to call for the convening of a conference within six months to prepare the way for a Middle East nuclear-weapons-and-weapons-of-mass-destruction-free zone. It called for all parties to the NPT Review - read especially the United States - to fulfill previous Review Conferences' promises to begin the process of creating the zone.

US Empire: No Shining City On A Hill

May 25, 2015 Gilbert Mercier, www.newsjunkiepost.com Educate! Imperialism, usa, Wars and Militarism

The concept of American exceptionalism is as old as the United States, and it implies that the country has a qualitative difference from other nations. This notion of being special gives Americans the sense that playing a lead role in world affair is part of their natural historic calling. However there is nothing historically exceptional about this: the Roman empire also viewed itself as a system superior to other nations and, more recently, so did the British and the French empires. On the topic of American exceptionalism, which he often called “Americanism”, Seymour Martin Lipset noted that “America’s ideology can be described in five words: liberty, egalitarism, individualism, populism and laissez-faire. The revolutionary ideology, which became American creed, is liberalism in its eighteenth and nineteenth-century meaning. It departed from conservatism Toryism, statist communitarianism, mercantilism and noblesse-oblige dominant in monarchical state-church formed cultures.”

US-Russia Round Three: Macedonia

May 20, 2015 Andrew Korybko, www.orientalreview.org Educate! History, Imperialism, Macedonia, Politics, Russia, usa

The US and Russia are currently involved in heated competition amidst the New Cold War, with their latest rivalry threatening to turn hot over Macedonia. They had already duked it out over Ukraine (and still are, to a large extent), and a deadly stalemate has now settled over Syria as the US covert war on the country drags through its fourth year. The latest flare-up between the two Great Powers is now gearing up to be for Macedonia, with the US following the template it’s learned in the previous two cases to throw the country into chaos during the forthcoming 17 May Color Revolution offensive. The terrorists intercepted last weekend in Kumanovo were supposed to have coordinated their attacks with the Color Revolutionaries during this Sunday’s destabilization, which would have symbolized the strategic merger between the Color Revolution and Unconventional War elements of the US’ regime change toolkit.

Saudis Drop US-Made Cluster Bombs In Criminal War On Yemen

May 11, 2015 William Boardman, www.readersupportednews.org Educate! Human Rights, Saudi Arabia, usa, Wars and Militarism, weapons

Costa Rica condemns Saudi Arabia’s dropping US-made cluster bombs on Yemen, in defiance of international law, including the Convention on Cluster Munitions that specifically outlaws the development, production, distribution, stockpiling, and use of cluster munitions, including the cluster bombs the Saudis have used since March 26 in their uncontested air attack on Yemen with an estimated 215 jet fighters from nine countries. (The Saudis are also bombing people in Syria and Iraq.) Amnesty International issued a report May 8 documenting Saudi bombing of densely-populated areas of Yemen where the Saudis mostly killed civilians. An earlier Amnesty report documented the Saudi killing of hundreds of Yemeni civilians in its US-supported bombing campaign.

Police Violence Shows US Hypocrisy On Human Rights Seen Worldwide

May 8, 2015 Kitty Stapp, www.ipsnews.net Educate! Human Rights, police brutality, Racial Justice, Torture, usa

Since being roundly chastised last fall by the U.N. Committee Against Torture for excessive use of force by its law enforcement agencies, the United States hasn’t exactly managed to repair its international reputation. Fatal beatings and shootings of African American and Latino citizens, mainly men, by the police have continued seemingly unabated, with the latest being the widely publicised case of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland. Gray, 25, died Apr. 19 of spinal cord injuries in what has been ruled a homicide after being arrested for allegedly carrying an illegal pocket knife. Six officers have since been charged in his murder. "As the U.S. claims a human rights mantle and criticises others for racism, it becomes the world’s greatest hypocrite." -- Michael Ratner The wave of cases – many caught on camera and shared via social media – have sparked a nationwide protest campaign grouped under the hashtag #blacklivesmatter.

The Wars Come Home

May 6, 2015 Michael Gould-Wartofsky, www.tomdispatch.com Educate! Baltimore, Local, usa, Wars and Militarism

Last week, as Baltimore braced for renewed protests over the death of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) prepared for battle. With state-of-the-art surveillance of local teenagers’ Twitter feeds, law enforcement had learned that a group of high school students was planning to march on the Mondawmin Mall. In response, the BPD did what any self-respecting police department in post-9/11 America would do: it declared war on the protesters. Over the course of 24 hours, which would see economically devastated parts of Baltimore erupt in open rebellion, city and state police would deploy everything from a drone and a “military counter attack vehicle” known as a Bearcat to SWAT teams armed with assault rifles, shotguns loaded with lead pellets, barricade projectiles filled with tear gas, and military-style smoke grenades.

Whistleblower Urges Journalists Tell ‘Full Story’ Of US Torture

May 4, 2015 John Casey, www.thebureauinvestigates.com Educate! CIA, Journalism, Media, Torture, usa

CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, who exposed the treatment of al Qaeda suspects held in secret prisons, told the Bureau today it was now down to journalists to “tell the full story” about the intelligence agency’s torture programme because politicians did not have the will. In a video interview on the last day of his house arrest recorded for the Bureau by film-maker Tarquin Ramsay, the former CIA counter-terrorism analyst called on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to release more details from its 6,000-page report on CIA torture completed last December. The committee published a heavily redacted 525-page executive summary, which contained shocking details about “enhanced interrogation” techniques. Kiriakou said the release of more details was vital, not only for accountability, but also to avoid a repeat of the programme in the future.

IFCO & VB: Relevance Of Civil Disobedience In Solidarity With Cuba

April 25, 2015 Nalda Vigezzi, www.nnoc.info Resist! Cuba, Faith, Peace, usa

The blockade is still in place. Travel restrictions still exist. Guantánamo Bay is still illegally occupied by the U.S. military and used as a venue for imprisonment and torture. And the U.S. government still funds USAID projects aimed at undermining the Cuban government. While this is undoubtedly a time for celebration, it is critical today more than ever that the VB, IFCO, and all friends of Cuba unite and are persistent in defending Cuba’s national sovereignty and right to self-determination. Today, energized by the example of the Cuban Revolution and empowered by community activists who came before them, members of IFCO, the VB, and other international Cuba solidarity movements continue to look to Cuba as a role model. Cuba has shown us that another world is possible. In the words of the late Reverend Lucius Walker, founder of IFCO/Pastors for Peace: “We act not just in defiance of our government, but in obedience to our conscience.”

Germany Is The Tell-Tale Heart Of America’s Drone War

April 21, 2015 Jeremy Scahill, www.firstlook.org Educate! Drones, Germany, usa, Wars and Militarism

A TOP-SECRET U.S. intelligence document obtained by The Intercept confirms that the sprawling U.S. military base in Ramstein, Germany serves as the high-tech heart of America’s drone program. Ramstein is the site of a satellite relay station that enables drone operators in the American Southwest to communicate with their remote aircraft in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and other targeted countries. The top-secret slide deck, dated July 2012, provides the most detailed blueprint seen to date of the technical architecture used to conduct strikes with Predator and Reaper drones. Amid fierce European criticism of America’s targeted killing program, U.S. and German government officials have long downplayed Ramstein’s role in lethal U.S. drone operations and have issued carefully phrased evasions when confronted with direct questions about the base.

Trillions In New Wealth, Millions Of Children In Poverty

April 16, 2015 Paul Buchheit, www.commondreams.org Educate! Children, Hunger, Poverty, usa, wealth inequality

America's wealth grew by 60 percent in the past six years, by over $30 trillion. In approximately the same time, the number of homeless children has also grown by 60 percent. Financier and CEO Peter Schiff said, "People don’t go hungry in a capitalist economy." The 16 million kids on food stamps know what it's like to go hungry. Perhaps, some in Congress would say, those children should be working. "There is no such thing as a free lunch," insisted Georgia Representative Jack Kingston, even for schoolkids, who should be required to "sweep the floor of the cafeteria" (as they actually do at a charter school in Texas). The callousness of U.S. political and business leaders is disturbing, shocking.

US Agenda Is To Push TPP To Split Latin American Integration

April 11, 2015 Miguel Tinker Salas and Paul Jay, www.therealnews.com Resist! Caribbean, Latin America, OAS, Revolution, usa, Venezuela

Well, I think the Summits at one level are symbolic. In fact, they are these groupings of individuals, of leaders, but there's now parallel Peoples Summits as well that are taking place. So there's week-long activities. In terms of commerce, there's also a Business Summit that takes place on the site of the Summit of the Americas as well. So it's very important in terms of what the U.S. would like to propose for the region. After all, it's confronting China as a major competitor in the region. So the Summits became a way for U.S. interests, but now also for Cuban interests, for Venezuelan interests, to promote their own economies as well.

As The Country Falls Apart, It’s Time For Our Revolution

April 8, 2015 Ted Rall, www.alternet.org Educate! Revolution, usa

You can feel it. Or maybe you can't. It doesn't matter whether you feel it or not. It's happening. The story of the United States of America as we know it -- not merely as the world's dominant superpower, but as a discrete political, economic, and geographic entity -- is drawing to a close due to a convergence of emerging economic, environmental, and political crises. Nothing lasts forever, empires least of all. And this one, which only began to expand in earnest circa the year 1900, doesn't feel like it has the staying power of ancient Rome. Not at all.

Guatemalans Deliberately Infected With STDs Sue Johns Hopkins For $1bn

April 7, 2015 Oliver Laughland, www.theguardian.com Resist! Guatemala, Imperialism, Medicine, Murder, usa

Nearly 800 plaintiffs have launched a billion-dollar lawsuit against Johns Hopkins University over its alleged role in the deliberate infection of hundreds of vulnerable Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases, including syphilis and gonorrhoea, during a medical experiment programme in the 1940s and 1950s. The lawsuit, which also names the philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation, alleges that both institutions helped “design, support, encourage and finance” the experiments by employing scientists and physicians involved in the tests, which were designed to ascertain if penicillin could prevent the diseases.

U.S. Citizens Call For Obama to Retract Exec Order

April 3, 2015 Various, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Imperialism, Obama, usa, Venezuela

In an Open Letter addressed to President Barack Obama, over 119 U.S. academics, activists and NGOs called on their head of state to rescind his Executive Order declaring Venezuela “an unusual and extraordinary threat to U.S. national security”. On March 9, 2015, President Obama invoked his executive powers to decree a national emergency based on the alleged “threat” represented by Venezuela. The Executive Order also imposed sanctions on Venezuelan officials with potentially far-reaching consequences. U.S. citizens and NGOs are joined by leaders from over 138 countries and prestigious multilateral organizations worldwide in their demand for President Obama to rescind his measures against Venezuela.

Democracy Behind Bars In Venezuela? Who Is Leopoldo Lopez?

April 2, 2015 Rachel Boothroyd and Jorge Martin, www.handsoffvenezuela.org Educate! Imperialism, usa, Venezuela

Facing death? Immediately below the headline “opposition leaders facing jail or death” there is a big picture of Leopoldo López. This gives the impression that he himself is potentially facing a death sentence. The writer probably is unaware that Venezuela was the first country in the world still in existence to abolish the death penalty, back in 1863! In contrast, in Britain it was not fully abolished until 1998 and of course in the US is still widely used. But, as they say, why let the facts get in the way of a striking headline. he section on Leopoldo López opens with a quote by himself regarding his political disqualification. This is unrelated to the reasons why he is currently in jail. López is disqualified from standing for public office for his role in two separate corruption scandals.

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