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Why low key US response to Hezbollah and Iran Guards in big battle for Aleppo, Syria?
Michael Collins
The low key reaction by the United States Department of State to recent events in the battle for Syria's second largest city, Aleppo, reveals a shift in U.S. policy on the Syrian conflict. It looks like the Syrian rebel forces will lose a key supporter.
In early November, the Syrian Arab Army took Al-Safira, a town southeast of Aleppo. The town served as a key gathering point for key rebel factions. Shortly after that, the army attacked and reclaimed a former felicity, Base 80, and the Aleppo International Airport, in rebel hands for nearly a year. These victories establish ground and air supply routes to Aleppo, something the Syrian government required for any attempt to regain the city. Aleppo is currently divided between rebel and government forces, with a smaller part of the city controlled by Syrian Kurds.
Oil Espionage: Targeting OPEC
by Stephen Lendman
NSA and Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) spy globally. It's largely unrelated to protecting national security.
The only enemies both countries have are ones they invent. Claims otherwise ring hollow.
Spying is for control. It's for economic advantage. It's to be one up on foreign competitors. It's for information used advantageously in trade, political, and military relations.
It's longstanding. It's institutionalized. It's lawless. It doesn't matter. It continues undeterred.
Both agencies invent pretexts to do so. They manufacture fear. They defend the indefensible. Their extrajudicial aggressiveness is breathtaking.
Invoking terrorist threats don't wash. NSA and GCHQ are extensions of rogue governments. They facilitate lawless practices. They commit plenty of their own.
They don't make the world safer for democracy. They don't enhance stability and security. They add greatly to police state harshness. They commit espionage on a global scale.
US Atrocities in Afghanistan
by Stephen Lendman
US drones murder Afghan civilian men, women and children. American grounds forces do it up close and personal.
US inflicted death, torture and other atrocities reflect daily life. Ordinary Afghans suffer most. They struggle to survive. American aggression is one of history's greatest crimes.
War criminals remain unpunished. Accountability is denied. Conflict persists. It's Washington's longest war. It's longer than WW I and II combined. It shows no signs of ending.
Trillions of dollars go mass slaughter and destruction. They're spent for unchallenged global dominance.
Vital homeland needs go begging. Targeted countries are ravaged and destroyed. Imperial lawlessness operates this way.
Judaizing Palestine
by Stephen Lendman
On November 13, the Jerusalem Post headlined "Netanyahu instructs housing minister to 'reconsider' plans for 24,000 units beyond Green Line."
Tenders were issued to begin preliminary work. According to an unnamed Israeli official, Netanyahu expressed concern over timing.
He referred to ongoing (sham) peace talks and international focus on Iran.
Construction plans aren't shelved. They're not delayed. Netanyahu committed long ago to unlimited settlement expansions.
He's defiant. He dismisses world condemnation. He claims the right to keep "building in Jerusalem, (throughout the West Bank, as well as all other places) on the map of Israel's strategic interests."
The People Can Defeat the Trans-Pacific Partnership
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers
Time to end the failed experiment with rigged corporate trade and put in place fair trade for the people and planet before profits
Momentum is growing in the campaign to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Yesterday, the TPP was dealt two blows. Each could be lethal but the TPP, and its Atlantic counterpart, called TAFTA, are not dead yet. It is time for the movement of movements that formed to oppose the TPP to stand in solidarity, defeat these agreements and end the era of rigged corporate trade.
Yesterday’s first blow came from Wikileaks, showing once again that when government works in secret with big corporations, exposure by whistle blowers is critical to changing the corrupt direction of government and the economy. Wikileaks published the full text of the intellectual property chapter; the leaked document included the positions of all the parties. It will take time for all the corporate rigging in this lengthy document to be understood, but already it is evident that Internet freedom will be curtailed, access to healthcare will become more expensive and access to information will be undermined.
Michelle Bachelet Favored to Win in Chilean Presidential Election
by Brian McAfee
Michelle Bachelet
Polling shows Bachelet with a significant lead over her closest competitor, Evelyn Matthei. The two women share a history in Chile's tragic past when the democratically elected Salvador Allende was overthrown in a bloody coup that the U.S. supported and helped to plan. Michelle Bachelet's father, Gen. Alberto Bachelet, who was loyal to President Allende and the Chilean constitution and rule of law, was arrested by Augusto Pinochet on September 11 1973, the first 9/11. He was tortured while in prison by the junta and died in prison in 1974. Michelle Bachelet and her mother Angela Jeria were also arrested and imprisoned for two weeks before going into exile. Both had been tortured while in custody.
Palestine's Land Defense Coalition
by Stephen Lendman
Separate and unequal is official Israeli policy. So is rampant land theft. It's stolen for Jews only construction. Palestinians are displaced in the process.
Their homes are bulldozed and destroyed. They're ethnically cleansed from their own land. A previous article discussed Settlement Watch.
It's a Peace Now initiative. It provides updated information on Israeli settlement construction. Continuing it prevents peace.
Stop the Wall is a "Palestinian movement against Israel's Separation) Wall and the settlements under Israeli repression."
It wants construction stopped, portions built dismantled, confiscated lands returned, and compensation paid for losses.
Land Defense Coalition (LDC) is a Stop the Wall (STW) anti-occupation initiative.
Waging Economic War on Venezuela
by Stephen Lendman
Washington tolerates no sovereign independent governments. It wants pro-Western ones replacing them. It wants subservient ones it controls.
After Chavez became president in February 1999, Bolivarian social justice was attacked.
Mass protests aborted an April 2002 coup attempt. A 64-day 2002 - 03 general strike and oil management lockout caused severe economic disruption.
An August 2004 national recall referendum failed. Chavez won a resounding 59% majority. Other disruptions occurred regularly. They continue. More on that below.Washington declared Chavez a regional enemy. It wants President Nicolas Maduro toppled. It wants a subservient stooge replacing him. It wants Venezuela made a client state.
Vilifying Venezuela's Maduro
by Stephen Lendman
Critics denigrated Chavez for 14 years. He was wrongfully called a strongman, an autocrat, a dictator. Rumsfeld once compared him to Hitler. Former Bush administration Deputy Secretary of State/Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte lied, saying:
Chavez "use(s) his control of the legislature and other institutions to continue to stifle the opposition, reduce press freedom, and entrench himself through measures that are technically legal, but which nonetheless constrict democracy."
Washington spent years trying to eliminate him. In March 2013, it succeeded. He was likely either poisoned or infected with cancer causing substances. Four major surgeries in 18 months couldn't save him.
Nicolas Maduro replaced him. He did so democratically. He knows what he's up against. Before and after his April election, efforts to destabilize Venezuela followed.
Libya almost Imploding, Status Quo Unsustainable
By Nicola Nasser*
More than two years on since the “revolution” of Feb. 2011, the security crisis is exacerbating by the day threatening Libya with an implosion charged with potential realistic risks to the geopolitical unity of the Arab north African country, turning this crisis into a national existential one. Obviously the status quo is unsustainable.
“Libya is imploding two years after the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi” was captured and killed on October 20,” Patrick Cockburn wrote in British The Independent on last Oct. 10.
Libya’s oil industry has become the target of violent attacks and civil protests, closing export terminals in east and west or/and creating an oil black market. “Security guards” at the country’s main ports are on strike and selling oil independently in spite of a 67% in pay for employees of the state oil sector on last Oct. 31. Libyan oil minister, Abdulbari Ali al-Arousi, told the Financial Times on last April 29 that disruptions to production and export cost the country about $1bn over the previous five months only.
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