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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Syrian army pounds Homs as U.S. BULLSH*TS that arms for opposition may help al-Qaeda

Syrian army pounds Homs as U.S. warns arms for opposition may help al-Qaeda (HAHAHAHA-Plutonian Mac)

It's a Neville Chamberlain Moment in the White House


“The army is trying to go in with infantry from the direction of al-Bassel football field and fierce confrontations with automatic rifles and heavy machineguns are taking place there,” activist Mohammad al-Homsi told Reuters from Homs.

As many as 104 people were killed in the shelling of opposition strongholds by Syrian forces on Tuesday, activists told Al Arabiya, including 35 in the Halfaya massacre in Hama and 26 others in another massacre committed by the Syrian forces in Baba Amro district of Homs.

The authoritarian left goes awry: From the Arab Spring to Latin America


Hugo Chavez has sided with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, even referring to him as 'our brother' [Reuters]

New York, NY - When the recent Occupy movement emerged, I was hoping that it might sweep away the vestiges of the old, authoritarian left that had been a longtime fixture of the US activist scene. Unfortunately, however, this hierarchical left still continues to exert significant influence over both old and new media, and shows no sign of abating. That is a pity, as this particular political tendency - which some might even call Stalinist - has been dragging the rest of the left into the mud and giving fellow radicals a bad name.
"When the hierarchical left encounters a situation that doesn't fit into its normal frame of reference, it seeks to change the subject."

The lockstep left's retrograde tendencies have been placed on particularly vivid display when it comes to the Arab Spring. At the beginning of the revolt, in Tunisia and Egypt, it looked as if local populations might slough off dictatorial rule backed by Washington. The prospect of a breach with the US and its client state Israel provided little reason for the authoritarian left to protest, but as events unfolded further, prominent writers began to run into difficulties.
Unlike Mubarak, who maintained warm ties with Washington, Gaddafi had been at odds with the West until fairly recently. Thus, Libya presented something of a quandary for the authoritarians. 

When the hierarchical left encounters a situation that doesn't fit into its normal frame of reference, it seeks to change the subject. Take, for example, Robert Dreyfuss, a columnist for The Nation magazine, who sought to shift attention away from Gaddafi in an effort to focus the reader's attention on other issues. 

The authoritarian left and the Gaddafi conundrum

To be sure, Dreyfuss concedes in one of his columns, Gaddafi's departure "can't be bad, as far as the long-suffering population of Libya is concerned". He then, however, seeks to discredit the Libyan opposition, implying that it is a mere pawn of NATO and Western interests. In another column, the Nation columnist goes yet further, calling out the Libyan opposition as essentially traitorous dupes who promise to "hand over [Libya's] oil resources to its Western backers".

Another Nation columnist, Alexander Cockburn, went much further than Dreyfuss (full disclosure: I once interned for Cockburn, and over the years I have occasionally published articles on Counterpunch, a website which he co-founded). Over the course of the Libya imbroglio, Cockburn sought to minimise the brutality of the Gaddafi regime while again casting aspersions on the opposition and its alleged ties to al-Qaeda. "Gaddafi was scarcely the acme of monstrosity conjured up by Obama or Mrs Clinton or Sarkozy," Cockburn rather questionably remarked.

Assad’s Useful Idiots in the West: THE LIST IS LONG


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a firm statement to the Syrian elite this week, urging them to overthrow the regime of Bashar Al-Assad. “The longer you support the regime’s campaign of violence against your brothers and sisters, the more it will stain your honor,” she advised.

Only now? Only after thousands of men, women, and children have been murdered, tens of thousands wounded, and countless homes destroyed by artillery shells has the Obama team finally shed its illusions about the Syrian regime?

A mere eleven months ago, when peaceful demonstrators in the streets of Dara and other cities were met with bullets, Secretary Clinton referred to Assad as a “reformer.” She was not alone. Last year, Germany’s foreign minister Guido Westerwelle visited Assad and declared him indispensable for a “constructive solution” to the Middle East’s problems. A leading German think tank, which advises the foreign ministry, called Assad a “modernizer.”

Rare is the sceptered thug who does not attract fawning admiration from some in the free and democratic West. Fidel Castro was the darling of the smart set in the 1960s, and Che Guevara, one of his “wet work” assistants, adorns t-shirts worldwide to this day. Sean Penn is a shill for Hugo Chavez, and Robert Scheer had admiring things to say about Kim Il-Sung. 

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Romney wins Michigan and Arizona Republican primaries

 
FOR THE FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE: Romney wins Michigan and Arizona Republican primaries

Over 60 men reportedly shot to death in Syria - CBS News

Over 60 men reportedly shot to death in Syria - CBS News

Publish Post
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America the Beautiful Sung Backstage at The White House: Keb Mo

Backstage at The White House: Keb Mo

Fascist Syrian troops accused of targeting children

Syrian troops accused of targeting children

Why Jews Are Fleeing Venezuela

Why Jews Are Fleeing Venezuela

Government anti-Semitism, Chávez style.

12:05 PM, Feb 28, 2012 • By JAIME DAREMBLUM

Much like Fidel Castro, his ideological soulmate, Hugo Chávez is fond of denouncing his critics as “fascists” and “Nazis,” regardless of whether those critics are U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill, heads of state in Europe, or opposition presidential candidates in Venezuela. Yet in his militarization of society, his promulgation of chauvinistic nationalism, and (above all) his persistent use of anti-Semitic demagoguery, Chávez himself is much closer to 1930s-style fascism than any of his democratic opponents.


Chavez Hugo

Consider the ongoing efforts to smear Henrique Capriles, the man who will represent the Coalition for Democratic Unity (MUD) in Venezuela’s October 2012 presidential election. Capriles, the governor of Miranda state, is a practicing Catholic, but his grandparents were European Jews who escaped Nazism, and his great grandparents were murdered at Treblinka. Immediately after he won the MUD primary vote on February 12, the pro-Chávez state-run media began attacking him with a fusillade of anti-Semitic propaganda.

Prominent Jewish leaders swiftly condemned the bigotry and demanded action from Caracas. “We urge President Chávez to put an end to this campaign that will surely become more threatening as the elections date approaches,” declared Shimon Samuels, director for international relations at the Simon Wiesenthal Center. 

“The people of Venezuela should forcefully reject the tactics of the Chávez regime to recycle classical anti-Semitic canards branding Jews as disloyal, as a menace to the values of the country, as capitalists responsible for the misery of others, and as being part of an international Zionist Lobby,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. 

Monday, February 27, 2012

Obama Appointee Caught in Congo Warlord Gold-Smuggling Intrigue by Georgianne Nienaber


Plot busted up by Congolese authorities, UN investigates.

by Georgianne Nienaber

ORIGINAL ARTICLE LINK HERE

Kase Lawal (source)


The infusion of $97,000 into the 2012 Obama re-election campaign by a Texas oil executive should not raise any eyebrows in an election cycle where the President has publicly embraced the super Pac concept. US media organizations might not flinch when the same executive happens to be a 2010 Obama appointee to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN). But since the oil magnate, Kase Lawal, is now implicated by the United Nations in a gold smuggling operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it might be time to dust off the neglected Congo desks and get a solid investigative reporter on the story. You have to wonder what the mainstream press would do with this information if it were linked to any of the Republican candidates, especially the donor angle.

CAMAC jet on Goma Runway Photo: Screen shot from UN Report

The Guardian first broke the damning minutiae found 150 pages into a November 2011 United Nations Security Council Committee Report on post election criminal activities in the DRC. The illicit gold trade is among the main sources of financing available to Congolese armed groups and FARDC (regular Congolese army) criminal networks.

The official White House biography lists Kase Lawal as Chairman and CEO of CAMAC International Corporation, "an integrated oil and gas company." The UN report details a plot in which Lawal's company, CAMAC International, leased a Gulfstream IV jet and sent it to the Congo for a gold smuggling operation. Included are an excerpt from a PowerPoint presentation made at a meeting in New York in December 2010, outlining the proposed gold deal for Lawal and others. If that is not enough, there are detailed cell phone records indicating that Lawal knew that the country of origin for the 475 kg of gold was the DRC.
The Group has investigated one particularly high-profile case in which Kase Lawal, Chair of the CAMAC (Cameroon-American) Group, attempted to conduct a gold transaction that subsequently involved (Bosco) Ntaganda between December 2010 and February 2011. CAMAC is an oil company based in Houston, Texas, in the United States, with offices in Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria. Financing this deal with company funds, Lawal organized it in collaboration with Carlos St. Mary, director of the diamond trading company Axiom Trading, and Dikembe Mutombo of Mutombo International Group.


Screen shot of public UN document

The profit to be gained from the deal was originally estimated at more than $10 million. Lawal agreed to finance the deal, with St. Mary conducting the business in Kenya and the two splitting profits with Mutombo, originally on a 40-30-30 basis, according to the UN report.

Worse, Lawal's group was dealing with Congolese warlord Bosco "The Terminator" Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes that include the killings, rapes and mutilations of men, women and children, and the forced conscription of child soldiers. In the most notorious case, Ntaganda is accused by Human Rights Watch of commanding troops that massacred 150 civilians at Kiwanja in North Kivu province in November 2008. "He also commanded troops accused of having killed at least 800 civilians on an ethnic basis in the town of Mongbwalu, in Ituri district in 2002, after his troops took control of the rich gold mines in the area," HRW says.

HRW Report on collateral damage from the gold trade

There are international sanctions against gold trade in DRC, and the United Nations specifically prohibits the financing of armed groups in DRC. Ntaganda controls the Mungwe and Fungamwaka mines, near Numbi, through the Great Lakes Mining Company.

(UN REPORT)According to St. Mary and hotel records examined by the Group, Lawal convened a meeting to initiate the gold deal in New York on 2 December 2010. There, Mutombo and three relatives, Reagan Mutombo, Stephan Kapuadi and David Kapuadi proposed the sale of gold held in Nairobi (see annex 165). Text messages obtained by the Group demonstrate Lawal's understanding that the gold was to have originated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (see annex 166). Throughout the process, Lawal made no inquiries regarding the exact origins of or conditions in which the gold had been extracted and transported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Kenya.

What followed was a trail of arrests, betrayal, bribery, lies, counterfeit currency, and cliched photos of suitcases full of money at the DRC border. It is all in the UN report. Finally, the CAMAC officials under house arrest in Kinshasa were released after being detained for a month in a hotel in Goma.

Seized CAMAC cash

(UN Report) CAMAC's Kinshasa representative, Marie Elonga, officially paid $3 million in fines, and the three were finally released on 25 March. According to St. Mary, when he had travelled immediately to see Kase Lawal in London, Lawal had told him that he had lost a total of $30 million as a result of the whole ordeal, including transport fees, fines, bribes and the payments made on the gold purchase.

The Guardian reports that all efforts to reach Lawal for comment have failed.

Camac said it had no comment on the allegations, but said: "Camac is a law-abiding company and we disagree with the representations made in the report." The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Even though CAMAC's lawyers denied any company involvement in the scheme, the UN Group of Experts has photos of the impounded corporate jet and the report says CAMAC acknowledged the release of its corporate jet on its website. CAMAC was in breach of its contract with Southlake Aviation when the Gulfstream was flown to the DRC.

Lawal is also the Vice Chairman of the Houston Airport System Development Corporation and Vice Chairman of Unity National Bank, and a member of the National Urban League Board of Directors, and a member of the United States Presidential Trade Advisory Committee on Africa during the Bush and Clinton Administrations.

According to the official government website, "The President appoints up to 45 ACTPN members for two-year terms. The 1974 Trade Act requires that membership broadly represent key economic sectors affected by trade. The committee considers trade policy issues in the context of the overall national interest."

The United Nations accusations against Lawal and CAMAC deserve a complete investigation and Congressional hearings might be a good place to begin. It is shameful to think that a United States trade commissioner is responsible for funding a notorious, murderous Congolese warlord. Who vetted Lawal's appointment? The Obama administration has accepted significant tainted campaign donations that should, at the very least, be returned. 

Obama's refusal to address this issue is troubling. In recent days he has been quoted as saying he will be president for the next five years. That is the same rhetoric one hears from dictators in Central Africa and has no place in the US political arena. If the press refuses to hold him accountable for the misdeeds of his trade administration, anything is possible.

A shorter version of this article is available at The LAPROGRESSIVE

Islamophobia Watch - Documenting anti Muslim bigotry

Islamophobia Watch - Documenting anti Muslim bigotry

Youcef Nadarkhani, the Pastor Iran Wants to Hang, Update from Jay Sekulow on Fox News

Youcef Nadarkhani Update from Jay Sekulow on Fox News

Arab, Jewish youth on landmark Holocaust study in Poland

Arab, Jewish youth on landmark Holocaust study in Poland

Israeli youth comprising a multi-cultural group of Jews and Arab Muslims, Christians and Druze high school students have been visiting former Nazi German death camps Auschwitz, Majdanek and Treblinka. (Reuters)
Israeli youth comprising a multi-cultural group of Jews and Arab Muslims, Christians and Druze high school students have been visiting former Nazi German death camps Auschwitz, Majdanek and Treblinka. (Reuters)

“We are 300 kids, from 18 schools from across Israel with nearly half and half Jews and Arabs, and it’s working,” Tamar Gal Sarai, a Jewish educator working with the Amal Group School System of Israeli told AFP.

“We’ve been to (former Nazi German death camps) Auschwitz, Majdanek and Treblinka,” Gal Sarai said of the innovative Holocaust education project dubbed “We Are All One Living, Human Tapestry.”

“We’re trying to create a multi-cultural dialogue, because most of the motivation for hate is fear,” Gal Sarai said.

“We believe that if you bring up the universal values, everyone can get attached to it and learn: Yes, the Holocaust was mostly against Jews, but if the Muslims were there with us in those years, they would have been killed with us too,” she told AFP, pronouncing the trip “an amazing success.”

“We have been very touched here as humans,” said Galal Safadi, an Arab-Israeli educator in charge of non-formal education for Arab youth in Israel at the education ministry.

Kagan and Zarif: America's Iranian Self-Deception

Kagan and Zarif: America's Iranian Self-Deception

Israel can't afford to stay silent in face of Syria crisis

Israel can't afford to stay silent in face of Syria crisis

Erdogan pledges Turkey’s support to Libya in transition

Erdogan pledges Turkey’s support to Libya in transition

Iran ups repression of dissent ahead of vote: Amnesty International

Iran ups repression of dissent ahead of vote: Amnesty International

Iran is holding Friday a parliamentary election, its first national poll since the controversial 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Reuters)
Iran is holding Friday a parliamentary election, its first national poll since the controversial 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Reuters)

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Free Christian Pastor Youcef

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION TO SAVE A MAN FROM THEOCRATIC BIGOTS.

Free Christian Pastor Youcef

Documents: Oakland City Official Emails from Oct. 12 to Nov. 13, 2011 - San Jose Mercury News

Documents: Oakland City Official Emails from Oct. 12 to Nov. 13, 2011 - San Jose Mercury News

‘Jesus predicted coming of Prophet Mohammad’ in Bible found in Turkey

‘Jesus predicted coming of Prophet Mohammad’ in Bible found in Turkey

The text, reportedly worth $22 million, is said to contain Jesus’ prediction of the Prophet’s coming but was suppressed by the Christian Church for years. (Photo courtesy of the Daily Mail)
The text, reportedly worth $22 million, is said to contain Jesus’ prediction of the Prophet’s coming but was suppressed by the Christian Church for years. (Photo courtesy of the Daily Mail)

Trevor Loudon's New Zeal Blog » US Communist Leader: “The Occupy Wall Street Movement Should Serve as a Wake Up Call to All Who Remain Committed to a Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist Direction”

Trevor Loudon's New Zeal Blog » US Communist Leader: “The Occupy Wall Street Movement Should Serve as a Wake Up Call to All Who Remain Committed to a Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist Direction”

WOW: 17km flag extending from Martyrs Sq to Tajoura in Libya

17km flag extending from Martyrs Sq to Tajoura in Libya

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Amnesty International on Libya again

An astute rebuttal of all the negative hyper-criticism of revolutionary Libya by Clay Claiborne.


Amnesty International on Libya again

Hamas in policy shift as it turns against Assad

Hamas in policy shift as it turns against Assad

Hamas prime minister backs Syrian protests against Assad

Hamas prime minister backs Syrian protests against Assad

Ismail Haniyeh becomes first leader of Palestinian group to publicly rebuke patron as he hails bravery of protesters
Ismail Haniyeh

Hamas's prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, arrives to perform the Friday prayer at Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, Egypt. Photograph: Khaled Elfiqi/EPA

Gaza's Hamas prime minister has expressed support for Syrian protesters seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

Ismail Haniyeh's comments were the first time a senior leader of the Palestinian group has publicly rebuked its longtime patron.

Speaking after Friday prayers at Egypt's al-Azhar mosque, Haniyeh said Hamas commended "the brave Syrian people that are moving toward democracy and reform".


FOR THE FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE: Hamas prime minister backs Syrian protests against Assad

Friday, February 24, 2012

IAEA_Iran_Report_24February2012.pdf (application/pdf Object)

HERE IS THE IAEA'S LATEST REPORT ON IRAN'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS, ERR, "PEACEFUL CIVILIAN" PROGRAM.

Clinton blasts China, Russia over Syria - CBS News

Clinton blasts China, Russia over Syria - CBS News

Red Cross, Red Crescent enter Syria’s Baba Amro to evacuate the wounded: ICRC

Red Cross, Red Crescent enter Syria’s Baba Amro to evacuate the wounded: ICRC

IAEA says Iran expands nuke work; Russia says West seeks ‘regime change’ in Tehran

IAEA says Iran expands nuke work; Russia says West seeks ‘regime change’ in Tehran

A float with papier-mache depicting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a dynamite in his mouth with the text Nuclear Programme at the traditional Rose Monday carnival parade in the western German city of Duesseldorf. (Reuters)
A float with papier-mache depicting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a dynamite in his mouth with the text Nuclear Programme at the traditional Rose Monday carnival parade in the western German city of Duesseldorf. (Reuters) 
Iran has sharply stepped up its controversial uranium enrichment drive, the United Nations’ nuclear agency said on Friday in a report that will further inflame Israeli fears that the Islamic Republic is pushing ahead with an atomic weapons program, as Russia accused the West of seeking “regime change” in Iran.

The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also reported its failed mission to Tehran this week that aimed to get Iran to respond to allegations of research relevant for the development of nuclear weapons -- a serious setback to the possible resumption of diplomatic talks.

“The Agency continues to have serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program,” the Vienna-based U.N. body said in a quarterly report about Iran issued to its member states, according to Reuters. 

FOR THE FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE: IAEA says Iran expands nuke work; Russia says West seeks ‘regime change’ in Tehran

Zeina Khodr reports from 'Friends of Syria' meeting

Zeina Khodr reports from 'Friends of Syria' meeting

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Marie Colvin: A relentless voice for innocents in cross hairs

Marie Colvin: A relentless voice for innocents in cross hairs

UN report says Syria committing war crimes

UN report says Syria committing war crimes

World conference to meet on Syria

Syria faces ultimatum from international conference

Hillary Clinton: "The obstruction of a few countries cannot be allowed to stop the world community from coming to the aid of the Syrian people"
A major world conference is being held in Tunisia to seek a breakthrough in the increasingly bitter Syrian unrest.

The US, Europe and Arab countries plan to challenge President Bashar al-Assad to provide humanitarian access within days to the worst-affected areas.

There is growing pressure on Damascus to give access to civilians trapped by the onslaught on Homs, which has lasted for more than two weeks.

Activists say another 50 or 60 people died across Syria on Thursday.

Russia and China will not attend the Tunisia "Friends of Syria" conference, organised by the Arab League.

The two countries have faced Western and Arab criticism for blocking a UN Security Council resolution that would have backed an Arab League peace plan for Syria.

Around 70 other nations, including the US, UK, France and Turkey are attending.

The conference will agree a declaration on Syria, expected to demand an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian assessment, with the threat of further sanctions if ignored.

 FOR FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE:World conference to meet on Syria

Nightly News: Wounded Reporters SOS from Homs

Nightly News: Reporters SOS from Homs

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Marie Colvin's killing piles pressure on Assad as civilian death toll rises

Marie Colvin's killing piles pressure on Assad as civilian death toll rises

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Democratic Bundler in Bed with Congolese Warlord

Democratic Bundler in Bed with Congolese Warlord 

Obama trade advisor accused of buying gold from warlord, stealing from Nigerian government


Kase Lawal
Kase Lawal

Kase Lawal, an oil mogul with longstanding ties to the Clinton family, was appointed in 2010 as a member of Obama’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations.

Since his selection to the trade board, Lawal has become enmeshed in a pact to purchase large quantities of illegal gold from a violent Congolese warlord, according to a U.N. investigation and various reports.

The crooked gold deal—as well as several other past scandals—raise concerns that the Nigerian-born Lawal is unfit to advise the White House about an issue as sensitive as global trade.

Lawal—founder of the oil and gas conglomerate CAMAC International—stands accused of transferring millions of dollars to Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, a rebel commander who has been linked by the International Criminal Court to a series of ethnic massacres and rapes. The deal, if verified, violates a U.N. ban on doing business with rogue Congolese warlords.


FOR THE FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE: Democratic Bundler in Bed with Congolese Warlord

Carnival/Mardi Gras 2012 Pictures - CBS News

Carnival/Mardi Gras 2012 Pictures - CBS News


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