Last week, hell came to the tiny Christian village of Maaloula where they still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. “Rebels of the Free Syrian Army launched an assault aided by a suicide bomber from Jabhat al-Nusra,” the al-Qaida-linked Islamic terrorist group, writes the Washington Post. The AP picked up the story: One resident said […]
A headline in the New York Times yesterday stated as fact that "With the World Watching, Syria Amassed Nerve Gas". The lead paragraph asserted that "Syria’s top leaders amassed one of the world’s largest stockpiles of chemical weapons with help from the Soviet Union and Iran, as well as Western European suppliers and even a […]
Contrary to the general impression in Congress and the news media, the Syria chemical warfare intelligence summary released by the Barack Obama administration Aug. 30 did not represent an intelligence community assessment, an IPS analysis and interviews with former intelligence officials reveals. The evidence indicates that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper culled intelligence analyses […]
The United Nations, which has remained deadlocked over Syria, is in danger of being craftily exploited to justify the impending air strike on Damascus. The threat of double vetoes by Russia and China against an attack on Syria has shifted the focus to the UN team of inspectors whose report on the chemical weapons attack […]
"Promoting democracy can be messy in the short-run and isn’t always possible in every circumstance but, in general, it is the best long-term bet for promoting American interests" – Max Boot in Commentary, 8/20/13 Promoting democracy is "messy" all right, especially when one considers the waves of humanity picking up, leaving their homes and wondering […]
For Democrats, this is the problem, not the solution-- Israel and GarrisonIn his Sunday column, The Wonk Gap, Paul Krugman highlighted "the G.O.P.’s near-complete lack of expertise on anything substantive.
Act Now! – Tell Congress: Vote NO on Bombing Syria
Here’s the Best Way to Tell Senate Your Opinion on Syria - Click Here to find Your Senator and call your member of the Senate or E-Mail them.
It does seem that there has been a momentary delay in the US launching its insanely stupid war against the innocent nation of Syria....
Xinhua News Agency
September 10, 2013
14 more countries call for int’l response to alleged Syrian chemical weapons use: U.S.
[Information in parentheses and brackets by RR]
WASHINGTON: The White House announced Monday that 14 more countries have joined the United States’ call for a strong international response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by Syria last month.
At least 25 people were killed and 28 more were wounded in attacks that focused on security forces.
China Daily
September 9, 2013
Nervous US and China-Russia ties
By Victor Larin*
From the very beginning of the Obama administration’s call for war in Syria to punish the Assad regime for allegedly using chemical weapons, the point of American hypocrisy has been made and made again. As U.S. officials gasp at chemical weapons use in Syria and cite it as a pretext for intervention, they fail to come to grips with the fact that the U.S.
Most Senate candidates are on the same page as the American people-- they oppose attacking Syria. According to a report by Sam Stein at HuffPo last week "[o]f the 50 candidates-- which included incumbents, members of the House of Representatives seeking higher office, top challengers and long-shots-- 43 either returned a request for comment or have already announced their position.
Continuing with the insane rush to war on Syria by the criminally insane occupying both the US and of course the terrorist state of Israel, we have seen more and more evidence the last few days of Assad's total innocence when it comes to the fraud "chemical attack" on his own citizens... More and more nations have now bailed on the so called "coalition" of nations that the US claims is willing to attack Syria, and all "credibility" that the US Government has had in the past has now disappeared...
September 10, 2013 (Tony Cartalucci) - After a stunning geopolitical move by Russia and Syria involving the surrendering of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal, the special interests seeking war have been forced to adjust their rhetoric and timetable around what is now a quickly dissolving casus belli. The surrendering of Syria's chemical weapons would not only critically set back rhetorical arguments being made to justify war with the nation, but would also preempt future false flag operations in the works.
Daily Times (Pakistan)
September 9, 2013
US-Syria conflict and its consequences
Muhammad Omar Iftikhar
The US wants to monitor Iran’s activities from a close range and it can do so by having a military presence in Syria. This can be a reason, among many, why the US wants to attack Syria
Were White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough not pushing for yet another war based on what look to be false pretenses, one might feel sorry for him after his multiple TV appearances on Sunday arguing for a military strike on Syria. This unenviable job fell to McDonough as pinch-hitter for the two more natural choices to push the Obama administration’s case for a “limited” war on Syria.
By Abdel Rahim Assi | Al-Akhbar | September 9, 2013
Reports coming out of the ancient Christian town of Maaloula remain unclear as to whether the Syrian army has in fact regained control after radical Islamists entered it last week.
Although Obama canceled his appearance at the AFL-CIO convention in L.A. this week so he could work on strategy for persuading America that war against Syria is the right move, the convention rocked without him-- by what many pray is a future president, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. She urged union activists that they need to strengthen their movement to beat back the enemies of working families. Here's the body of her address:
Today Professor Michel Chossudovsky of GlobalResearch.ca joins us from Montreal to discuss the latest moves toward war on Syria. We talk about the geopolitical and economic ramifications of a potential strike on Syria, the likely response from Syria's allies, and the so-called "anti-war" progressives who have avoided questioning the legitimacy of Obama and the other war criminals currently manning the helm of the US war machine.
MoveOn.org and other groups are holding vigils tonight (Monday night) around the country.
So far, 217 gatherings are planned.
Find an event in your area here. To organize a vigil in your area, fill out this form.
Turn out to show your support!
Pictured: Not this water.
This is the second installment in a series of shows inspired by my experience with and successes after reading the book, Getting Things Done by David Allen.
Discussed Today:
-The importance of a capture device
-mental RAM
-Evernote
-My professional organization history
-dealing with unplanned meetings
-strategically clear space
Look Closer:
David Allen, Getting Things Done - http://www.davidco.com/
Pictured: Not this water.
This is the second installment in a series of shows inspired by my experience with and successes after reading the book, Getting Things Done by David Allen.
Discussed Today:
-The importance of a capture device
-mental RAM
-Evernote
-My professional organization history
-dealing with unplanned meetings
-strategically clear space
Look Closer:
David Allen, Getting Things Done - http://www.davidco.com/
Pictured: Not this water.This is the second installment in a series of shows inspired by my experience with and successes after reading the book, Getting Things Done by David Allen.Discussed Today:-The importance of a capture device-mental RAM-Evernote-My professional organization history-dealing with unplanned meetings-strategically clear spaceLook Closer: David Allen, Getting Things Done - http://www.davidco.com/The Trivium method -
Russian Information Agency Novosti
September 9, 2013
Russia Must Respond to ‘Baseless’ Reports on Caucasus – Putin
NOVO-OGARYOVO: Russian officials must respond to “baseless accusations” voiced by Western media and human rights organizations about the North Caucasus, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday.
In a press conference yesterday, Secretary of State John Kerry responded to a question about what could be done to avoid a U.S. attack on Syria by laying out specific measures that could be taken.
Bashar al-Assad ”could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week,” Kerry explained. If that happened, the Obama administration would consider rescinding its promise to attack.
Many senators began this week still uncommitted on whether they’ll vote for attacking Syria. Among the fence-sitters are enough "progressives" to swing the Senate’s decision one way or the other.
That decision is coming soon – maybe as early as Wednesday – and the Obama White House is now pulling out all the stops to counter public opinion, which remains overwhelmingly against a war resolution. The administration hopes to win big in the Senate and carry momentum into the House, where the bomb-Syria agenda faces a steeper climb.
Voice of Russia
September 9, 2013
Will China send its warships to Syrian coast?
Vasily Kashin
Itar-Tass
September 9, 2013
Russian lawmaker: US strike on Syria may repeat situation in Belgrade in spring 1999
MOSCOW: The US strike on Syria can repeat the situation in Belgrade in the spring 1999, State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov said on Monday.
“Even if strikes last for several days, they can be considered massive. Their task is to put out of order all military and civil facilities control systems and command posts,” the lawmaker said.
Jay Stamper is the Democratic candidate for Senate in South Carolina and he's running against Lindsey Graham-- or whoever the Tea Party replaces Graham with in an increasingly bitter and contentious Republican primary.
Interfax
September 9, 2013
SCO may elaborate consolidated position on Syria – Foreign Ministry
MOSCOW: Syria will be on the agenda of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Bishkek summit on September 13, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov told a press briefing on Monday.
“Syria will be on the agenda,” he said.
RT | September 9, 2013
Despite earlier US assurances that its Department of Defense does not “engage in economic espionage in any domain,” a new report suggests that the intelligence agency NSA spied on Brazilian state-run oil giant Petrobras.
Brazil’s biggest television network Globo TV reported that the information about the NSA spying on Petroleo Brasileiro SA came from Glenn Greenwald, the American journalist who first published secrets leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Henri Barbusse: Selections on war
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Henri Barbusse
From Jesus (1927)
Translated by Solon Librescot
freethinkerSeptember 9, 2013 at 1:39 AMHuman Rights Watch show their true colours in this RT interview of Ken Roth, executive director of HRW:Bombing for Peace The loaded language is very interesting. His organization is quite obviously a NATO propaganda tool. Clearly.
In philosophy circles, bullshit is a technical term denoting a claim presented as “fact” although its veracity has not been established. The truth value of bullshit is largely irrelevant to its propagators. Bullshit is disseminated in the service of particular ends, typically opaque to the audience.
September 9, 2013 (Tony Cartalucci) - US White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough made the unbelievable admission this week that Western interests have concluded Syria carried out an alleged chemical attack in eastern Damascus based on "common sense" rather than "irrefutable evidence." Slate's "White House: “Common-Sense Test” And Not “Irrefutable” Evidence Hold Assad Responsible," states [emphasis added]:
Sometimes history happens at the moment when no one is looking. On weekends in late August, the president of the United States ought to be playing golf or loafing at Camp David, not making headlines. Yet Barack Obama chose Labor Day weekend to unveil arguably the most consequential foreign policy shift of his presidency. In […]
In making their case for urgent airstrikes against Syria, top White House officials are relying heavily on a four-page document entitled ‘Government Assessment of the Syrian Government’s Use of Chemical Weapons on August 21, 2013‘. The report contains false claims easily disproven by open sources, logical fallacies, and verifiable misreporting of intelligence. Three major flaws […]
The world holds its collective breath as the President of the United States calls for military action in Syria, Congress debates the question, and the war-sickened American public asks: What’s next? I’ll tell you what’s next. 1) The President dominates the airwaves with two days of interviews culminating in another Obama peroration in which Hitler, […]
Some progressives remain conflicted about how the United States should respond to Syria’s increasingly violent civil war. This internal division has only deepened as the Obama administration considers launching a military strike on Bashar al-Assad for an alleged chemical attack by regime forces on civilians last month. Many progressives are rightly skeptical about involving the […]
"Relax, honey -- change is good."by KenLast week New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff, in the newsletter-blogpost "No Cliché Is an Island," issued a challenge to readers, having to do with clichés in cartoons.
Today, at least 19 people were killed in ongoing attacks, while another 23 were wounded.
Press TV
September 7, 2013
G20 wrong place for lobbying for US war
AUDIO
[Correction: Pope Francis is the leader of 1.2 billion Catholic believers.]
US President Barack Obama was “desperately” lobbying for support during a G20 summit in Russia for a possible US attack on Syria, Rick Rozoff from Stop NATO said on Saturday.
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Paul Nizan
From Antoine Bloyé (1933)
Translated by Edmund Stevens
