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by Stephen Lendman
Syrian authorities said so in 2011. Other reports acknowledged it then and now.
Syria is Washington's war. It was planned years ago. America wants pro-Western puppet leadership replacing Assad.
All independent governments are targeted for regime change. Imperial rogue states operate that way.
Strategy used is longstanding. On January 4, Michel Chossudovsky discussed it. Current US proxy wars employ earlier tactics. Western-recruited death squads are used.
by Stephen Lendman
On January 6, Assad called for "comprehensive national dialogue in the near future." He rules out negotiating "with a puppet made by the West."
He advocates responsibly engaging opposition elements and other political parties.
"Syria wants peace and reconciliation," he stressed.
"(A)rmed groups must halt terrorist acts."
Since early 2011, Washington waged war on Syria. Proxy deaths squads are used. They're recruited abroad. They're heavily armed, funded, trained and directed. They infiltrate across borders.
by Stephen Lendman
Headlines belied its weakness. Economist John Williams reengineers economic data based on reliable decades earlier modeling.
U-3 unemployment rose 0.1% to 7.8%. U-6 is broader. It's 14.4%. It includes:
(1) Marginally attached workers wanting jobs but not actively looking in the past 30 days. They looked unsuccessfully in the last year. They include "discouraged workers." They gave up in frustration within, but not exceeding, the past 12 months.
(2) People looking for full-time work but forced to take part-time or temp jobs to be employed.
Based on how unemployment was calculated in the 1980s, Williams reported 23%. It's a "new (post WW II) high," he said.
Mary Shaw
January 11, 2013, will mark the 11th anniversary of the arrival of the first prisoners at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
In 2009, just two days after taking office, President Obama issued an executive order calling for the Guantanamo prison to be closed within a year, and for detainees to be given fair trials in U.S. federal courts. But, since then, he has repeatedly signed Congress's defense bills that keep Gitmo going, even while blaming Congress for his failure to keep his promise.
Joel S. Hirschhorn
Everywhere I look outside my home I see people busy on their high tech devices, while driving, while walking, while shopping, while in groups of friends, while in restaurants, while waiting in doctor offices and hospitals, while sitting in toilets – everywhere. While connected electronically, they are inattentive to and disconnected in physical reality.
People have been steadily manipulated to become technology addicted. Technology is the opiate of the masses.
Stephen Lendman
NNC's Iman Soleimani conducted this and earlier interviews. Each raised major world issues.
NCC is one of Iran's largest media operations. It works collaboratively with major TV and News services.
Questions and answers are below. Editing was done as needed. Final comments follow.
NNC: Why will Obama appoint a new Secretary of State? Do US foreign policy issues alone matter? Is personal character considered?
by Stephen Lendman
Netanyahu represents lawless rogue leadership. He belongs in prison, not high office. Pre-election polls suggest he'll retain power.
Israelis aren't smart enough to spurn him. Palestinian suffering will continue. The new year began like 2012 ended. More on that below.
On December 22, Netanyahu warned he'll hit Hamas "with a heavier blow" than Pillar of Cloud. He spoke on Israeli television. "I suggest Hamas not celebrate," he said. Israeli state terror remains ongoing. "We inflicted a very heavy blow," he added.
Ian Fletcher
Previously negotiated U.S. free trade agreements went into effect with Korea in March, Colombia in May, and Panama in October.
President Obama continued to push for the unpopular Trans-Pacific Partnership.
He also continued to refuse to designate China a currency manipulator, despite his Treasury Department’s own economists verifying the truth of this allegation yet again. China’s currency continued to slowly rise, though not nearly enough to eliminate the problem.
The major Republican candidates for president ran the gamut in terms of the trade positions they expounded during the primaries.
by Stephen Lendman
Congressional profiles in courage are sorely lacking. Pretenders usually vote party line when asked or pressured.
No House or Senate member explained what constituents most need to know. Fiscal cliff hype reflects doublespeak duplicity. Previous articles explained.
America's social contract is targeted. Bipartisan complicity wants it eroded and destroyed. Heavy lifting comes later. Eleventh hour legislation ducked tough issues. The battle of 2013 awaits.
Expect something greater than August 2011's debt ceiling crisis. Version 2.0 will demand more pounds of flesh. Republicans have Obama where they want him. They conceded on extending most expiring benefits. They settled for half the mandated $1.2 trillion sequester.
Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD
“Americans need to look at how their society has increasingly become a psychopathic culture of death over many decades. Americans need to realize how their hallowed capitalist ideology of the putative American Dream is in practice nothing but the destruction of communities and millions of individuals on the altar of elite profit-making. Think about the glib, common parlance used to describe the process of human destruction. Investors “make a killing”; workforces are “liquidated”; society is facing a “fiscal cliff”.
(Finian Cunningham, “Killing Children Is the All-American Way.” Dissident Voice: 12/22/2012).
Guns do not kill, people kill people. The crux of the problems which most politicians avoid seeing the mirror. War is killing people. America has the unparallel sophistication, know-how and the mindset to maintain this “business as usual.” Killing others transforms the American politics into a dehumanized global strategy being actively pursued by the institutionalized military-industrial complex in Washington - the political lobby and force behind warmongering. There is no pain or anguish in obsessed insanity using the feeling less war machines anywhere and against anyone. Politics is a game of pretension and superficial acting on stage, and all politicians master the Machiavellian statecraft. The underpinning passion for political obsession is to get elected and nothing else. All other grandeur claims of being honest or doing good for the public are fake illusions evolved to boost the political image to impress the electorates who have paid dearly in advance for political pains. Political minds are always self-centered, greedy and problematic. They need problems for self-actualization and relevance in a given societal culture. The overwhelmingly war hysteria brings home to America what is irrational and insane in human terms.
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