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Should People Trust CBS, ABC, NBC, NYT, WP, WSJ, BBC, AP, etc.?
Eric Zuesse
The following facts were established and published in obscure places in 2002 (which will be documented here), well before the U.S. and UK invaded Iraq. But, did you know these facts, from the news-reports you encountered, at that time, before we invaded, on that day that will forever be remembered in infamy, as the precise date when America’s rabid dictatorship became clearly exposed, for all future history to contemplate, in horror, that cursed day being 20 March 2003 — the day of the invasion that is still destroying the Middle East, and worse? Did you know these facts, at that time? The New Rulers of the World John Pilger, 2002, Verso Books p.9:At the time of writing, Iraq is likely to be attacked by the United States. Using sections of the American and British press as ‘conduits’, US intelligence has successfully created what the CIA in Indochina used to call a ‘master illusion’. This is the threat of Iraq’s ‘weapons of mass destruction’. There is no proof or credible evidence of any such threat, which has been denied by numerous authorities, including the former United Nations inspector in Iraq, Scott Ritter.17 However, the Iraqi ‘threat’ is central to the Bush administration’s post-September 11 strategy of ‘total war p.152:
The most important ‘evidence’ of Iraq’s complicity with September 11 is that the alleged leader of the Twin Towers suicide hijackers, Mohamed Atta, was supposed to have met an Iraqi intelligence agent in the Czech Republic. In the British press, the intelligence agent was promoted from being ‘low level’ (The Guardian) to ‘mid-ranking’ (Independent) to ‘senior’ (Financial Times) to the ‘head of Baghdad’s intelligence services’ (The Times). Only the Financial Times questioned whether the ‘meeting’ took place at all, or had anything to do with the destruction of the Twin Towers.97 On the BBC’s Newsnight, Mark Urban, the Foreign Office correspondent, revealed that there was ‘secret information’ about ‘a missile Saddam Hussein was planning to launch’. He provided no evidence.
Turkey’s Constitutional Referendum Divides Country, Opposition Cries Foul
Stephen Lendman
On Sunday, Turks voted on whether to replace its parliamentary system with a presidential one - affording Erdogan virtual dictatorial powers.
He can now rule by decree, short of circumventing existing laws. He can declare emergency rule, appoint two vice presidents, ministers and regime officials, as well as dissolve parliament if he wishes and call new elections.
He has more control over Turkey’s courts. His power-grab prevailed on Sunday by a 51.3 - 48.7% margin. Reported turnout was 84%.
The referendum was held under state of emergency conditions, following last July’s failed military coup - tens of thousands imprisoned in its aftermath, over 130,000 purged from regime, academic and other public positions.
Truth-Telling From Syria Exposes Scoundrel Media Lies
Stephen Lendman
Since Obama launched naked aggression on Syria, using imported terrorist foot soldiers, aided by US-terror-bombing, I’ve written numerous articles, too many to count, throughout the horror inflicted on defenseless civilians.
But I’ve never been to the shattered country to see firsthand what’s happening - the devastating carnage, the unspeakable human misery, the loss of life and anguish from US imperial viciousness.
21st Century Wire’s Patrick Henningsen and Vanessa Beeley are there now, reporting on US-led Western and regional state-sponsored atrocities - committed by ISIS, al-Nusra and other imperial foot soldiers, endless war and carnage against a beleaguered, long-suffering people.
What can possibly justify so much harm on so many Syrians for so long with no end in sight to their long ordeal - because America wants war, regime change and destruction of the Syrian Arab Republic, no matter the cost in human lives and suffering.
Trumpcare 2.0
Stephen Lendman
Marketplace medicine based on the ability to pay puts profits over fundamental human needs and rights.
Trumpcare’s original and reported new versions are abominations, each making a bad system worse, the new proposal more unacceptable than the initial one - both leaving millions uninsured, millions more way uninsured, mostly poor and low income households.
On April 17, the Washington Post cited Economist/YouGov and Morning Consult/Politico polls, showing most Americans support universal single-payer healthcare coverage, including Republicans - Medicare for all.
Nothing else is equitable. America has the world’s most expensive healthcare system - costing double what other developed countries provide their citizens.
Trumpcare works great for America’s privileged class, dismally for most others. According to the Huffington Post, House “GOP moderates and conservatives are nearing a deal” to replace Obamacare.
The Reason Behind the Sales-Surge for Nuclear-Proof Bunkers
Eric Zuesse
On April 15th, Zero Hedge bannered "Doomsday Bunker Sales Soar After Trump's Military Strikes”, but this growth in the market for nuclear-proof bunkers is hardly new; it started during the Obama Administration, in Obama’s second term, specifically after the Russia-friendly government of Ukraine, next-door to Russia, got taken over in 2014 by a rabidly anti-Russian government that’s backed by the U.S. government. This boom in nuclear-bunker sales is only increasing now, as the new U.S. President, Donald Trump, tries to out-do his predecessor in demonstrating his hostility toward the other nuclear superpower, Russia, and displaying his determination to overthrow the leader of any nation (such as Syria and Iran) that is at all friendly toward Russia. For earlier examples of feature-articles on this booming market for homes that allegedly would enable buyers to survive the first blast effects, and the most immediate nuclear contaminations, of a Third World War, see here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here.
This surging demand for nuclear bunkers started right after the U.S. government arranged a coup in Ukraine that replaced the existing Moscow-friendly democratically elected President by installing a rabidly anti-Russian Prime Minister and national-security appointees from Ukraine’s two nazi Parties, the Right Sector Party, and the former Social Nationalist Party of Ukraine (which the CIA renamed “Svoboda” meaning”Freedom” so as to enable it to be acceptable to the American public). Then, the intensifying U.S. effort to replace the secular pro-Russian Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad by a sectarian jihadist government that would be dependent upon the Saudi-Qatari-UAE-Turkish-U.S. alliance, has only intensified further the demand for these types of “second homes.”
Whereas all of the purchasers of these bunkers are being kept secret, the U.S. federal government provides, free-of-charge, to top officials, nuclear bunkers, so as to allow the then-dictatorship (continuation of America’s current dictatorship) to function, in order, supposedly, to serve their country, which they’d already have destroyed (along with destroying the rest of the world) by their determination to conquer Russia. No one knows what the reality would actually be in such a post-WW-III world, except that there would be no functioning electrical grid, nights would be totally dark for anyone whose sole reliance is on the grid, and all rivers and other water-sources would be intensely radioactive from the fallout, so that groundwater soon would also be unusable — and, of course, the air itself would also be toxic; so, lifespans would be enormously shortened, and excruciating, not to say extremely depressing. No one has published a computer-model of a U.S.-Russia nuclear war, because doing that would be unacceptable to the “military-industrial complex” including the U.S. government, but in 2014 a “limited, regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan” was computer-modeled and projected to produce global ozone-depletion and “the coldest average surface temperatures in the last 1000 years”, which “could trigger a global nuclear famine.” But such a war would be only 50 bombs instead of the 10,000+ that would be used in a WW III scenario; and, so, everyone who is paying money in order to survive WW III is simply wasting money.
Trump’s Rage for Warmaking
Stephen Lendman
America is more recklessly belligerent than any other nation in history - at war at home and abroad perpetually from inception.
A culture of violence like no other persists. The nation is permanently at war, rejects peace, risks possible nuclear denouement if the madness doesn’t stop.
Trump is America’s latest warrior president, perhaps intending to outdo his predecessors, escalating Bush/Cheney/Obama wars, threatening North Korea and Iran.
Are Russia and China next? Is unthinkable nuclear war likely? On Easter Sunday, he tweeted “(o)ur military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before. Frankly, we have no choice!”
America’s only enemies are ones it invents - pretexts for endless wars of aggression against countries threatening no one.
Tillerson Bashes Iran
Stephen Lendman
Iran is Anglo-Zionism’s main regime change target, wanting pro-Western puppet rule replacing its sovereign independence.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Tillerson said “(t)he Trump administration is currently conducting across the entire government a review of our Iran policy.”
He irresponsibly called its government “the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism…intensifying multiple conflicts and undermining US interests in countries such as Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Lebanon, and continuing to support attacks against Israel.”
Fact: Iran hasn’t attacked another country in centuries. It threatens none now - not America, not Israel or any others. Tillerson willfully and maliciously lied.
Syria Reportedly Moved Warplanes to Russian Airbase
Stephen Lendman
Unconfirmed reports suggest Damascus moved its warplanes to Russia’s Khmeimim airbase in Latakia, Syria - for protection against further US aggression, likely wanting them destroyed.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment, saying “(t)he Kremlin does not have any comments on this issue. We do not deal with the movement of warplanes. You better forward this question to the Defense Ministry.”
Russia uses Khmeimim airbase for its own aerial operations in combating terrorism in Syria. It’s well protected with state-of-the-art S-400 air defense capability - able to strike targets up to 400 km away at altitudes up to 90,000 feet with precisions accuracy.
If reports are accurate, Russia will now protect Syria warplanes against further US attacks - perhaps Putin’s response to Trump, warning against more attacks against Syria’s military, calling his April 7 strike on Shayrat airbase an “illegal act of aggression.”
WaPo Wants Trump to Be Tougher
Stephen Lendman
He’s already reckless - terror-bombing Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, risking nuclear war on the Korean peninsula, threatening Iran, saber-rattling in the South China Sea, and antagonizing Russia.
Neocon/CIA-connected WaPo editors want him to push China harder on Pyongyang, asking is he “driving toward a new outcome with China or the same old dead end?”
His “strategy is to crank up pressure,” negotiate through China for “denuclearization…look(ing) for a non-military solution.”
Demonizing Pyongyang’s government is a virtual cottage industry - even though it never attacked another country in its entire history, threatens none except in self-defense, and eagerly wants rapprochement with the West.
Bill Weinberg and the Progressives’ Tourette’s Syndrome
Gilad Atzmon
Apparently, New York ‘Progressive’ and Jewish activist, Bill Weinberg, thinks that I am “not welcome in NYC”. Over the last ten days, Weinberg has worked tirelessly, trying to cancel a panel discussion on 30th of April at Theatre 80 NYC, related to my forthcoming book ‘Being in Time’. Theatre 80’s owner, Lorcan Otway, has made it very clear that he won’t surrender to any calls for censorship, but still, Weinberg doesn’t seem to give up. He believes that it is he who will decide who is, and who is not, “welcome in NYC.”
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