Thursday, March 30, 2017

Glen Ford interviewed by RT

I agree.


Sarah Abdallah Retweeted Maxine Waters
From activist official challenging the CIA on drug trafficking, to mouthpiece for the neocons seeking global conflict with Russia. Shameful.
Sarah Abdallah added,




Maxine Waters has become a real embarrassment.

And it didn't happen overnight.

It happened, in part, during the last 8 years when Ms. Anti Iraq War couldn't say a damn thing.

What a huge misleader.

Here's a taste of an interview you should stream or read:


DHARNA NOOR: With us to discuss all this is Glen Ford. Glen is joining us from Plainfield, New Jersey. He's the co-founder, and Executive Editor, of the Black Agenda Report. And he's also the author of the book, "The Big Lie: An Analysis of the U.S. Media Coverage of the Grenada Invasion."
He's also a regular contributor to The Real News Network. Thank you so much for joining me, Glen.

GLEN FORD: Thanks for having me.

DHARNA NOOR: Glen, can we get your response to that clip from Adam Schiff?

GLEN FORD: Well, my response is that there's no proof of any of that. And even the statement that came from the U.S. intelligence agencies, basically in intel-speak, amounted to saying that -- well, that's a plausible theory, it hangs together -- but there is no proof.
So this, what Mr. Schiff is spouting off, is propaganda, a fantasy that has no basis in provable fact. And if we're going to have hearings that are based on fantasies, I don't know which committee really ought to be holding these hearings. Do we have a committee on fantasy?

DHARNA NOOR: Let's take another look at what Adam Schiff continues to say.

ADAM SCHIFF: Ours is not the first democracy to be attacked by the Russians in this way. Russian intelligence has been similarly interfering in the internal and political affairs of our European, and other allies, for decades. What is striking here is the degree to which the Russians were willing to undertake such an audacious, and risky, action against the most powerful nation on Earth.
That ought to be a warning to us. That if we thought that the Russians would not dare to so blatantly interfere in our affairs, we were wrong. And if we do not do our very best to understand how the Russians accomplished this unprecedented attack on our democracy, and what we need to do to protect ourselves in the future, we will only have ourselves to blame.
The stakes are nothing less than the future of our democracy, and liberal democracy, because we're engaged in a new war of ideas. Not communism versus capitalism, but authoritarianism versus democracy, and representative government.

DHARNA NOOR: What's your response to this? Are these so-called interferences unprecedented? And what do you make of his accusation that Russia is working against democracy with its support for authoritarianism?

GLEN FORD: Well, they're not just unprecedented, they're non-existent, at least as far as the evidence goes. But there is a great precedent in the world for interfering in other people's governments, and other people's right to order their own internal affairs as they see fit. And the biggest example of that interference -- the great interferer -- is the United States of America.
Nobody holds a candle to the United States, when it comes to interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. Nobody even comes close. And we only get a sense of the scope, and sheer size, and the unique character of U.S. interference in the rest of the world, by taking in the totality of history, and the whole wide range of meddling in other people's rights to self-determination that the United States is guilty of.
The U.S. has absolutely no respect for anybody else's right to self-determination, except its own. It overthrows governments. It overthrew most of the governments of Latin America, and still threatens to do so. It has participated in the overthrow of emerging governments in Africa, and now, basically is an occupier of Africa, through its Africom.
It annexes whole countries, and that begins with the beginnings of the United States, the annexing of all the original people, the original nations of the United States into the United States. And goes on to include, oh, about half or more of Mexico, and all of Puerto Rico and the Philippines. And they damned near took Cuba several times, including at the turn of the 20th Century.



Check it out.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 
Thursday, March 30, 2017.  Chaos and violence continues, the UN Secretary-General visits Iraq, a War Hawk flutters and frets that the US military in Iraq might be drawndown or -- gasp! -- withdrawn, and much more.


AP reports 15 people are dead and another forty-five injured as a result of a Baghdad suicide truck bombing last night.


As the violence continues, the United Nations Secretary-General arrived in Iraq.


Just arrived in Iraq to focus on the dire humanitarian situation on the ground. Protection of civilians must be the absolute priority.
 
 




He arrives as Iraq is in the midst of a major refugee crisis:

UN News Centre: How is UNHCR handling the large displacement resulting from the current crisis in Iraq?


António Guterres: We immediately started by supporting the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), in northern Iraq, providing tents, blankets and other relief items for the first response for the people that were coming. Now, with our other UN colleagues and NGOs, [we are] working with the KRG in a more organised way in reception centres, in the camps that are being established, and supporting families all over the region. We are doing our best so they get the assistance they are entitled to and that the necessary protection mechanisms are put in place. Of course, the situation is more complex in and around Baghdad, where there is an environment of high insecurity. But we have kept a small team in Baghdad in order to be able to do everything we can to support the people that are suffering so much.

UN News Centre: What is the biggest challenge at the moment?


António Guterres: I think the big challenge is the fighting itself. We are facing an enormous risk in Iraq for the stability of the country and obviously there is no humanitarian solution for this problem; the solution is always political. We humanitarians can do no more than to support people in distress. What we need is to stop the dramatic situations that are now proliferating all over the world.


Oh, wait.

That's Guterres speaking in 2014.

Amazing how little has changed.

But that's part of the story as well -- even if it's not being reported on -- don't worry, we'll get to it.


For now, PRESS TV notes, "Guterres is scheduled to meet top Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi before heading to Arbil, the capital of the country’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region." AFP adds, "After his arrival in Baghdad, Guterres met President Fuad Masum, parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi and Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari."


Guterres arrives on day 164 of The Mosul Slog.

For American audiences, AP tries to reset the time clock (it doesn't do the same for foreign audiences).  Rather interesting -- apparently, they think American news consumers can't handle the truth and are also so dumb that they won't notice that the clock's being reset.

It's 164 days.


And look at the concerned Paul D. Shinkman of US NEWS & WORLD REPORTS -- and apparently PROPAGANDA as well:

The Trump administration has indicated it plans to largely abdicate a U.S. role in Iraq's political future, despite the certainty that driving the Islamic State group from its remaining stronghold in Mosul – months, if not weeks, away – starts the clock on a dangerous new era for a country on the verge of fracturing along rival warring factions.

The prospect of a reduced U.S. role leaves a vacuum in crafting a long-term political solution to reassemble Iraq. Chief among the concerns is that the country's religious and ethnic populations – minority Sunni Muslims who felt victimized by the central government in Baghdad and now fear retribution, ethnic Kurds certain to seek independence for their semiautonomous region, and a majority Shiite population thought to be under the sway of Iran – will turn on each other without a common enemy to unite their efforts.


According to Shinkman, grab the Greek worry beads, Donald Trump is going to "abdicate" -- oh, no.

Here's the thing, Shinkman's a damn liar.

There have been people concerned about the political situation in Iraq.

I know because -- check the archives -- I'm one of them.

We have laid out the roots for this conflict for years now.

We have talked about the need for diplomacy.

We have gone over and over how delivering F-16s with no demand of political reconciliation within Iraq was stupidity.

We've talked about the diplomatic toolbox.

We've rightly called Barack Obama out for bombing Iraq since August 2014 and sending even more US troops into the country without offering a diplomatic surge because, if ISIS ever is gone, something else will quickly replace it.

For over two years, Barack did nothing.

Secretary of State John Kerry thought he was Secretary of Defense and spent too much time playing general to do his job.

This is all appalling but it's even more appalling when you grasp that June 19, 2014, Barack himself said the only answer was a political solution.

But the US refused to use the diplomatic toolbox to create such a solution.

Now comes Paul Shinkman suddenly concerned.

He's not concerned.

Paul is part of the war think tank Center for a New American Security -- an affiliation that should preclude him from being presented as anything other than biased -- every column he writes should have a disclaimer at the top.

For those who don't know that organization, it was cofounded by Michele Flournoy -- a woman so addicted to war and violence that even Barack wouldn't appoint her Secretary of Defense though everyone thought she had a lock on the job at one point.  (She only made it up to Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.)

War boy Paul suddenly raises the political issue and he's doing it because he wants the military angle in Iraq.  He's lying to justify further war.

Today, Speaker of Parliament Salim al-Jubouri has declared to the UN Secretary-General that Iraq needs a Marshall Plan to rebuild.

Such a plan would cost millions -- probably billions.

There's your maneuver.

You insist upon meaningful changes as a condition on funding.

I'm assuming this would be done at the UN level.


European countries -- France most visibly -- have long mocked Barack for his no-strings approach to diplomacy with Iraq.

European countries would be on board with this.

This is a tool that can be used.

That Paul Shinkman doesn't note these type of tools is because he doesn't care about a political solution within Iraq.

He's only tossing that out now because he's afraid that the US will 'walk away' militarily from Iraq and human filth like Paul can't stand for any war to end.


XINHUA notes:

The UN chief's visit came as the Iraqi security forces are fighting to dislodge the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants from their last major stronghold in Mosul.
The troops have been fighting street by street and house by house to recapture the Mosul's old city center, but they were slowed by the heavy resistance of IS militants and the presence of some 500,000 people living in the old houses with narrow alleys.

   The fierce battles in the western side of Mosul caused heavy casualties among civilians who were either caught by cross-fire or by airstrikes and shelling.


The British newspaper "theguardian":The International coalition has launched "5000"bombs on the neighborhoods in...
 
 






RT reports:


The debris of destroyed houses, schools and hospitals have turned Iraq’s second largest city into an urban graveyard after the US-led coalition and Iraqi government forces launched the offensive in October to liberate the city.
With explosions and gunfire heard in the distance, RT's crew saw US-led coalition jets heading to and from Mosul every 5–10 minutes on Tuesday night. They also witnessed an Iraqi helicopter launching missiles at IS targets on Wednesday and heard chilling stories of how Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists continue to use civilians as human shields during airstrikes.
But instead of organizing humanitarian corridors for civilian to leave the city, the Iraqi government, as noted in the Amnesty International report earlier this week, has been urging Mosul residents to stay inside. Unfortunately for many of them, the perceived safety of their homes became their graves, as Iraqi and US forces continue to target their houses.
“When we were in our home, it was hit by a shell. We went to my parent’s house, and it was hit by a rocket. Wherever we went, we’d be bombed. I heard an airstrike destroyed our home,” one woman with a child told RT.



That's the reality of 'liberation' for Mosul.


As it was for Falluja and Ramadi before.

That's The Mosul Slog.



The following community sites updated:


  • Burn!
    11 hours ago




  • Wednesday, March 29, 2017

    Some thoughts





    Hillary needs to go away and stay away -- as Blondie once sang.





    Sarah Abdallah Retweeted Chelsea Clinton
    As opposed to the hundreds of thousands of children's lives your mommy and daddy's Clinton Foundation destroyed in Haiti.
    Sarah Abdallah added,



    Chelsea Clinton has done nothing and needs to go away.

    She needs to be shut down before she starts.

    She doesn't want to get a real job?

    Fine.

    That doesn't mean she gets elected office because her parents held it.


    I found this interesting.

    The TV network of liberal “resistance” is owned by the company that gets to sell your browser history, thanks to the GOP. Think about that.
    Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

     
    Wednesday, March 29, 2017.  Chaos and violence continue, The Mosul Slog continues, the destruction continues . . .


    Liar Kevin Liptak (CNN) lies:



    President Donald Trump offered rare public remarks about Iraq Tuesday, declaring to a group of Senators gathered at the White House that the US is performing "very well" in the country, which remains besieged by violence.
    "We're doing very well in Iraq," Trump said at a reception for all US senators and their spouses in the White House East Room, adding he'd just ended a long phone call with Defense Secretary James Mattis before appearing at the event.
    Trump added that "our soldiers are fighting like never before" in Iraq, and praised what he characterized as a positive trajectory in the country.
    It wasn't clear what fighting Trump was referring to in his remarks, which appeared unscripted. The US combat mission in Iraq ended in 2010 and American troops are now in the country primarily to advise and assist Iraqi forces.


    It wasn't clear what fighting?  Combat mission ended in 2010?  Primarily advise and assist?


    I'm sick of liars, I'm sick of whores.

    The US is in combat in Iraq.


    By any definition that's reality.

    More to the point, former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter (2/15 through 1/17) spoke of this reality repeatedly to Congress when he served as Secretary of Defense.

    I'm getting damn tired of your all bulls**t and lies because you hate Donald Trump.

    It became combat the minute war planes -- US war planes -- began bombing in August of 2014.

    It was combat before that for the special-ops left behind after the December 2011 drawdown, it remained combat when Barack sent another brigade of special ops in the fall of 2012.

    Does Liar Liptak not know what Tim Arango (NEW YORK TIMES) reported in September of 2012:


     
    Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that could result in the return of small units of American soldiers to Iraq on training missions. At the request of the Iraqi government, according to General Caslen, a unit of Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence.        



    All of that's before August of 2014 when then-President Barack Obama begins the daily bombings of Iraq.

    Liar Liptak ignores all of Ash Carter's testimony to Congress as well as his remarks to the press.

    Why?

    Because he wants to take down Donald Trump.

    I'm sick of your bias, I'm sick of your lies.

    I'm sick of you.

    You have no ethics.

    How sad that I'm the one -- someone who loathes Donald Trump -- who is trying to be fair while the professional press thinks they can write any damn lie they want.

    The press is a threat to democracy at this point.

    These daily attempts to take down an elected president are outrageous.

    I'm not talking about reporting, I'm talking about slanting.

    If the press doesn't understand why they are not respected anymore, that's their own damn fault.

    Opinions belong in opinion pieces.  Kevin Liptak is supposed to be offering straight news but CNN's allowing him to interject little jibes and insults.

    That's not reporting.

    Cher is not a threat to democracy.



    🚽SAYS“🇺🇸TROOPS FIGHTING LIKE NEVER B4”IN IRAQ. LIKE NEVER B4⁉️OUR TROOPS HAVE FOUGHT DIED,& RETURNED W/ SEEN &UNSEEN WOUNDS





    I think Cher's mistaken (and we'll go into that in a second) but that statement is a part of democracy.

    Equally true, Cher's not a Debra Messing.

    Meaning, Cher's not using the troops to score a political point.

    Cher's long spoken up for servicemembers and veterans.

    And she's been attacked and slimed for that (see our June 2006 defense of Cher in "When Docker Boy Met Diva . . .").

    Cher's offended by what Liptak describes Trump doing in his first two paragraphs above.

    She has every right to be offended.

    She has every right to express that offense.

    Where I disagree is that I don't find the remark outrageous.

    Donald is president of the United States which makes him commander-in-chief of the US military.  I see that statement in keeping with a commander-in-chief statement, with a Secretary of Defense statement, etc.

    I think we're letting our daily outrage cloud our opinions and letting our emotions run wild.

    I think the press has helped fuel an addiction to daily rage.

    In no way is that me arguing, "Don't print the bad news!!!"

    Print the bad news, report it.

    But report it.

    Kevin Liptak is supposed to be a reporter, not a columnist.

    Columnists can say whatever the want.

    In straight news, you keep that crap out of it.

    Cher is genuinely offended and has every right to express it.

    And she may be right to be offended.

    There are others expressing similar sentiments that we won't include because they don't have Cher's history of standing up when needed.  Cher has called out Republicans, she's called out Democrats.

    I know Cher and I'll give her a benefit of the doubt that she's more than earned.

    But these people who suddenly care about veterans?

    I have no respect at all for people who use veterans or civilian casualties (yes, I'm thinking of Mosul) as props in their partisan efforts.

    And on what's happening in Mosul, I'm not remembering anyone attacking the US Army Major General Joseph Martin for declaring in February, "It’s urban combat of the like, of a scope and scale I have not see in thirty-one years and I’ve served in combat a couple of times."

    Mosul.

    It's day 163 of The Mosul Slog.

    And only recently has the world awakened to that fact and to what's been done and is being done to the civilians of Mosul.

    See, the Islamic State seized Mosul in June of 2014.

    And the Iraqi government?

    Fine with that.

    They waited until October of 2016 -- over two years later -- to launch their operation which they claimed would 'liberate' the civilians.


    Hasn't worked out that way.




    launches urgent appeal: protect civilians in Iraq. Prayers to ppl trapped in Mosul, those displaced by war. (CNS photo/Reuters)






    Ines San Martin (CRUX) reports:

    Pope Francis said the protection of the civilian population in the “beloved Iraqi nation” is an “imperative and urgent obligation,” calling for the forces fighting in Mosul, including the United States, to protect them.
    Speaking at the end of his weekly Wednesday audience, Francis also expressed “deep pain for the victims of the bloody conflict.”
    The pontiff said that he was particularly concerned about the citizens trapped by recent fighting to take Mosul back from Islamic State group militants.

    “My thoughts go to the civilian populations trapped in the western districts of Mosul and to the people displaced by war, to whom I feel united in suffering through prayer and spiritual closeness,” Francis said. “While expressing deep sorrow for the victims of the bloody conflict, I renew to all the appeal to engage fully with the civil protection forces, as an imperative and urgent obligation.”



    This was killing civilians.  There's no way around it.

    Some people are desperate for investigation by the US government that will then be immediately released -- I think that's how Human Rights Watch is wording their plea.

    Seriously?

    How stupid are they?

    Forget Vietnam, let's just go to one of the biggest War Crimes of the Iraq War: the gang-rape and murder of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi.


    Who was the ringleader of that?





    Steven D. Green



    May 7, 2009 Steven D. Green (pictured above) was convicted for his crimes in the  March 12, 2006 gang-rape and murder of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, the murder of her parents and the murder of her five-year-old sister while Green was serving in Iraq. Green was found to have killed all four, to have participated in the gang-rape of Abeer and to have been the ringleader of the conspiracy to commit the crimes and the conspiracy to cover them up. May 21, 2009, the federal jury deadlocked on the death penalty.

    Alsumaria explained, "An ex-US soldier was found guilty for raping an Iraqi girl and killing her family in 2006 while he might face death sentence.  . . . Eye witnesses have reported that Green shot dead the girl’s family in a bedroom while two other soldiers were raping her. Then, Green raped her in his turn and put a pillow on her face before shooting her. The soldiers set the body afire to cover their crime traces."



    He died in prison Feburary 18, 2014.



    Her murderer and rapist was put in prison!!!!

    The military investigation worked!!!!!


    No, it didn't.

    The investigation blamed the crimes on Iraqi insurgents.

    It was only when other Americans were killed (in retaliation) that a servicemember came forward with what he knew.  Green had already been discharged and was on his way home to the US.

    The military investigation itself had already cleared Americans and pinned the blame on Iraqis.

    So, no, I'm not hopeful about some wonderful investigation.

    I'm also aware that numerous investigations by the military are merely stalling tactics because they know the press doesn't follow up.

    This incident is under investigation -- be it a helicopter crash (they're crashes but the US military works so hard not to call them that) or a military death.

    Civilians never should have been put at risk.

    (And the Iraqi government certainly shouldn't have told them to stay in Mosul.)


    Somewhere around 250 to 300 members of the 82nd Airborne Division will be going to Iraq.  Andrew deGrandpre (MILITARY TIMES) notes this -- and, Liar Liptak, he notes that they are "combat soldiers" -- and attempts to get a count on how many US servicemembers are already there and are in Syria:


    There are 5,262 U.S. troops authorized to be in Iraq, and another 503 in Syria, officials told Military Times on Sunday. But the numbers have been considerably larger for quite some time as commanders leverage what they call temporary — or "non-enduring" — assignments like this one involving the 82nd Airborne in Mosul.

    It's believed there are closer to 6,000 Americans in Iraq, not including this new deployment. Nearly 1,000 more are on the ground inside Syria, where several hundred additional personnel arrived in recent weeks to bolster allied forces targeting the city of Raqqa, which ISIS considers its capital. The Pentagon is  reportedly weighing plans to send upwards of another 1,000 troops there. 





    It's time to end the Iraq War but that's not going to happen unless Americans demand it.


    This is what the war is doing:



    Over 300 civilians were killed in Mosul, Iraq between Feb. 17 and March 22










    Freed from [. . .], but 's Qaraqosh still a ghost town story by , pix by







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