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Obama: TTIP Necessary So As to Protect Megabanks From Prosecution
Eric Zuesse
On May 7th, Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten, or German Economic News, headlined, "USA planen mit TTIP Frontal-Angriff auf Gerichte in Europa” or “U.S. Plans Frontal Attack on Europe’s Courts via TTIP,” and reported that, “America’s urgency to sign TTIP with Europe has solid reason: Megabanks must protect themselves from claims by European investors who allege that they were cheated during the debt crisis. … The U.S. Ambassador to Italy has now let the cat out of the bag on this — probably unintentionally.”
In this particular case, the megabank that’s being sued isn’t American but German, Deutsche Bank, which the U.S. Ambassador to Italy has cited as his example to defend, perhaps so as to appeal to Germans to protect their megabanks against lawsuits from foreign investors (such as Italians) who complain. In that case it was investors in the Italian city of Trani, population 53,000. The smallness of the city was an issue the Ambassador raised against the suit’s having been brought there.
Why Obama Prioritizes Ousting Assad Over Defeating Syria’s Jihadists
Eric Zuesse
Dr. Christina Lin, a leading young scholar on jihadist groups, opened her April 8th commentary at Asia Times:
In a blunder reeking of the fallout caused by supplying Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to 1980s mujahideen in Afghanistan, civilian airline passengers are now under threat from Syrian jihadists armed with portable surface-to-air missiles (MANPADS). Reports say some American-backed jihadi groups are being equipped with US-made MANPADS. Indications are they’re obtaining these advanced weapons either directly or indirectly from the US or its Mideast allies in connection with a recent escalation in the fighting in Syria. On April 2, fighting broke out between western-backed al-Qaeda affiliates and the Syrian army, ending the Syrian ceasefire.
The groups that broke the ceasefire included al-Qaeda in Syria (al-Nusra), the Chinese Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), The Levant Brigade, the Freemen of Syria (Ahrar al-Sham), Division 13, and other jihadi groups. According to AP, the US-trained and armed Division 13 is now fighting alongside al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham. The latter two are part of the Turkey/Saudi/Qatar-backed Army of Conquest.
House Speaker Ryan Withholds Trump Endorsement
Stephen Lendman
Neocon House Speaker Paul Ryan’s agenda should scare everyone. Last October, he succeeded John Boehner in a palace coup.
The former speaker wasn’t hardline enough for tea party Republicans. Ryan’s ascendancy lurched Washington further to the right.
He wants more spending for militarism and wars, less for social programs - endorsed privatizing Social Security and Medicare en route to ending them altogether.
He favors abolishing America’s social contract, everyone on their own sink or swim, tax cuts for the rich, and more generous corporate handouts. His ideal America is government and monied interests partnering for self-enrichment at the public’s expense, producing greater inequality than already, while cracking down hard on nonbelievers.
Phantom Free Syrian Army Rejects Peace
Stephen Lendman
The phantom FSA exists on paper alone. All anti-government armed groups are US-backed terrorists - death squads imported from scores of countries.
Syria is Obama’s war, orchestrated by Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. Its goal is replacing Assad with pro-Western puppet governance like the US controlled Iraqi regime, partitioning both countries, looting their resources and exploiting their people.
Illegally deploying hundreds of US special forces to northern Syria is part of the imperial scheme - on the phony pretext of aiding nonexistent “moderate rebels.”
Russia supports Syrian sovereignty and territorial integrity. How far it intends going to protect them remains to be seen. Washington won’t likely confront Moscow belligerently over Syria. At the same time, the presence of US combat forces on its territory with likely larger numbers coming risks making the nation more of a dangerous flashpoint for potential East-West conflict than already.
Russia Accuses Obama of Supporting Al Qaeda in Syria
Eric Zuesse
On May 4th, Russia’s Sputnik news agency headlined "Lavrov: US Tried to Include Al-Nusra Front Positions in 'Silent’ Period”, and reported that Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, speaking in Moscow about the lengthy negotiations between himself and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to agree on conditions for a Syrian ceasefire and peace talks to take place between Syria’s government and Syria’s rebels, said, "During the negotiations, our US partners actually tried to draw the borders of this ‘zone of silence’ to include a significant number of positions occupied by al-Nusra [Front]. We managed to exclude this as it is absolutely unacceptable.”
Terrorism in Syria - Terrorism Against Syria - Hillary's Choice
Voltairenet.org with a comment by Michael Collins
Supporting Syria is a code name that NATO and Gulf oligarch nations use when they meet on methods of supporting extremist terrorist rebels attacking Syria. (Image: Creative Commons)
Voltairenet.org put together a comprehensive list of recent terrorist attacks against the Syrian people and government by terrorists funded and armed by NATO and the Gulf oil states. This terrorism coverage isn't allowed in the Western media which self-censors any crimes against Syria's people and government. That doesn't fit the story line supporting the Assad must go policy of the Obama administration. As Secretary of State, candidate for president Hillary Clinton was the tip of the spear threatening a sovereign nation with violence because its leader won't just leave when told by the White House. Clinton's handiwork resulted in 250,000 dead Syrians (and counting).
This should required reading for all of those liberal Democrats who justify support for Hillary Clinton's nomination due to Supreme Court nominees, the fact that Clinton is a woman, and other rationals. Voting for Clinton endorses the death in Syria and lays the foundation for even more death with her as commander in chief. Michael Collins
Terrorism in Syria
America’s Biggest of All Big Lies
Eric Zuesse
On April 26th, Reuters headlined from Romania, “‘We’re Not Here to Provoke,’ Say U.S. Pilots on Putin’s Doorstep”, and gave as an example: “‘We're not here to provoke anybody, we're here to work with our allies,’ says Dan Barina, a 26-year-old pilot on his first trip to a region where tensions have risen markedly since Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Romania's neighbor Ukraine two years ago.”
How can it not be ‘provoking', when Russia now faces a threat from Obama and America's NATO alliance, that’s vastly worse than what America had faced from the Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev and the USSR’s Warsaw Pact alliance in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis? That was just one missile-base, 90 miles from the U.S. — not dozens of them, some right on Russia’s border. Are those American pilots idiots to believe their superiors’ absurd statements about what their mission is, or is insanity the explanation here — or, is there even some third explanation possible for this oblivious statement from the American pilot? Perhaps those soldiers and airmen are simply drowning in (or drunk with) U.S. propaganda? They really believe that Russia is moving too close to NATO, not that NATO has already moved too close to Russia? Really? The Reuters report said that NATO countries were doing this to protect themselves from “an increasingly aggressive Russia.” Wow. But that’s the line promoted by U.S. President Barack Obama. And he’s accepted as a decent person not only by the millions of voters in his own Democratic Party (though not in the Republican Party, which blames him for everything except the truth: that he is governing so far to the right that they have to concoct false ‘leftist’ reasons to criticize him); but, he’s also respected even by the publics in Europe, where they suffer the flood of refugees from the invasions he leads. After all: one must never underestimate the power of propaganda, to warp the public’s minds.
The Left: Business Accommodation and Social Debacle
James Petras
Prologue
In 2004 I wrote Brazil and Lula: Year Zero (Edifurb: Blumenau, Sao Paolo 2005), in which I presented my analysis of the V (PT) regime in Brazil undergoing a Grand Transformation with the first stage represented by the PT’s incorporation into a government apparatus led by of bankers and exporters (the agro-mineral elite). Two year earlier, my colleague, Henry Veltmeyer, and I had published Cardoso’s Brazil: A Land for Sale (Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham MD 2003) where we described how President Cardoso had sold off the major public resources, banks, petroleum and iron resources to foreign capital for rock bottom prices. The 2002 election of President Lula DaSilva of the Workers’ Party did not reverse Cardoso’s sell-out. Indeed, Lula accepted his predecessor’s neo-liberal policies – embellished them – and set about forging an alliance between the Workers’ Party and the economic elites, replacing Cardoso’s Party! For the next few years, we were attacked by the Left academic and pundit world for having dared to advance such a critique on their ‘worker president’! The consequences of what we had described as the PT’s pact with the Right are clear to everyone today: Brazil is enmeshed in swindles, scandals and coups.
Cruz Concedes: Trump the Presumptive GOP Nominee
Stephen Lendman
Trump’s overwhelming defeat of Cruz in Tuesday’s Indiana primary knocked his only serious challenger out of the race.
GOP primary season climaxed yesterday. Cruz is out, Kasich no more than a footnote. The Wall Street Journal put it succinctly, saying “Mr. Trump will now be the Republican nominee for president.”
The New York Times said the “once unimaginable” aspirant is “all but certain to roll into the Republican convention in July with the party establishment’s official but uneasy embrace.”
Trump Supports Expanding Illegal Israeli Settlements
Stephen Lendman
Israel is an outlaw state, a serial human rights abuser, asserting the right to occupy and colonize Palestine - a lawless act enforced by military might.
Settlements violate international law, prioritize land theft and prevent peace. Fourth Geneva’s Article 49 states:
“Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.”
Displacing Palestinians, destroying their homes, other property and personal possessions, stealing their land, along with letting settlers occupy it directly contravenes Article 49.
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