The Cruel Jest of American ‘Humanitarian Aid’ to Iraq

By Juan Cole

U.S. soldier stands in front of an Iraqi woman’s house during a search for three missing soldiers in Al Thobat, Iraq in 2007. The U.S. Army (CC BY 2.0)

This post originally ran on Juan Cole’s Web page.

The United States of America has no claim on the language of “humanitarian aid” to Iraq after what it did to that country.  It is rather as though Washington should send Meals Ready to Eat to the good people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  One is happy that the U.S. has dropped food aid for the Yezidis trapped on a mountain after they escaped the so-called “Islamic State” of self-styled “caliph” Ibrahim.  But the U.S. press either has a short memory or is being disingenuous when they talk about a humanitarian mission in Iraq!

"Hero of War"–Rise Against Song Captures Iraq War Veteran’s Tragic Experience

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Weapons of Mass Destraction

Dennis Kucinich

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CIA denies spying on US critic of Iraq war

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) logo
© AFP/File Saul Loeb

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) -  The Central Intelligence Agency on Friday denied allegations by an ex-spy that it had sought information on a US professor who was critical of the Iraq war in order to discredit him.

Glenn Carle, who served as a top CIA counter-terrorism official, had told The New York Times that Bush administration officials twice sought to investigate Juan Cole, a history professor and widely read blogger.

Carle detailed two occasions in which he was approached by colleagues who were looking for information to discredit Cole, a professor at the University of Michigan, despite a legal ban on the agency spying on Americans.

"We've thoroughly researched our records, and any allegation that the CIA provided private or derogatory information on Professor Cole to anyone is simply wrong," he said.
"We value the insights of outside experts, including respected academics, who follow many of the same national security topics we do. Diversity of thought is essential to the business of intelligence analysis."

In a post on his "Informed Comment" blog on Thursday, an outraged Cole said he had been targeted for exposing "propaganda" by former president George W. Bush's administration and called on Congress to investigate the matter.

He also wrote that around the time of the alleged requests he began receiving less invitations from Washington think tanks to speak to audiences that included intelligence analysts and counterterrorism officials.

The Times cited intelligence officials as saying that they had asked an analyst for information on Cole in 2006 because White House officials wanted to know why he had been invited to CIA-sponsored conferences.

But on Friday a senior intelligence official insisted Cole "has participated in CIA conferences in the years since this alleged series of events -- in both the Bush and the Obama administrations."

"It's the smart thing -- and the right thing -- for American intelligence agencies to hear from smart people," the official said.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

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Donald Rumsfeld confronted on Aspartame and Iraq War (Video)

WeAreChange Chicago

CHICAGO, IL- Former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld strolled into Chicago on May 17, 2011, for a speech at the globalist think tank, Chicago Council on Global Affairs. The audience was mainly comprised of your average "Coke drinking, McDonald's eating" yuppie, ready to bow down to Mr. Rumsfeld. They clapped and cheered as he approached the podium and delivered his globalist speech. The praising of such a criminal was mind blowing, and something had to be done. Mr. Rumsfeld's "accomplishments" have caused humanitarian suffering worldwide.

To start off, Rumsfeld is responsible for contributing to the approval of the artificial sweetener Aspartame. The known carcinogen has caused millions of people suffering around the world. Headaches, dizziness, neurological degeneration, macular degeneration, optic neuritis, insomnia, seizures, irregular heart rhythm, multiple sclerosis, lupus, Alzheimer's disease, autism, Tourettes syndrome, birth defects, Lou Gehrig's disease, Parkinson's disease, leukemia, low blood platelet, and diabetes are a few of the illnesses and disease caused by this poisonous drug. Think about how much better our health could be had Mr. Rumsfeld not pushed Aspartame into the market for human consumption. (Visit Natural News for more information).

America at War: The Missing Election Issue

Doug Brandow
Campaign for Liberty

Americans have voted, and voted for change. Real change.

Yet the most important area requiring change is one that received virtually no attention on the campaign trail: foreign policy.

No doubt, wild spending and mounting debt threaten America's fiscal future. ObamaCare will deliver worse medical care with fewer choices at higher cost. Extreme proposals for "cap and trade" could wreck the economy. Reform is needed on more than a few domestic issues.

But the U.S. is at war. Two wars, in fact. Americans are dying.

Yet virtually none of the 435 candidates elected to the House and 37 elected to the Senate on November 2 talked about either war. Former Bush aide Peter D. Feaver explained: "The big strategic consideration is that the electorate is energized over jobs, not over the war right now."


Unfortunately, "out of sight, out of mind" appears to be the motto for most Americans. Like past imperial powers, war has become both constant and largely invisible. Military personnel die and funerals are held; service men and women are injured and families suffer. But most Americans go about their lives with little sense that their government is sending fellow citizens to kill and to die in the name of the American people.

Even more blame falls on the candidates, however. They are supposed to be debating America's future. They should be offering contrasting visions of the future. They should be debating where and how the U.S. should be at war. And whether the U.S. should be at war at all.

Unfortunately, both parties are complicit in today's welfare/warfare state. President George W. Bush and the Republican Congress demonstrated that they spend money like Democrats. In their six years together the Republicans tossed money at virtually every program. They were as bad as Lyndon Johnson and the Democratic Congress when it came to upping domestic discretionary spending. In fact, the GOP-backed Medicare drug benefit was the largest expansion of the welfare state since President Johnson's "Great Society."

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Timetable Abandoned: U.S. And NATO To Wage Endless War In Afghanistan

Rick Rozoff
Global Research

The mainstream news media and alternative sources alike have seized on a recent revelation - though it is hardly such - published by McClatchy Newspapers that "The Obama administration has decided to begin publicly walking away from what it once touted as key deadlines in the war in Afghanistan in an effort to remove emphasis from Barack Obama's pledge that he would begin withdrawing US forces in July 2011." [1]

An article in this series of over a month earlier, U.S. And NATO To Wage War 15-Year War In Afghanistan And Pakistan [2], documented that much and more, and any attentive reader of news on the Internet during the preceding weeks would not have been surprised by the McClatchy feature.

On October 25 Edmund Whiteside, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Council Secretary, spoke at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, and according to the local press said, "Expect the war in Afghanistan — the longest military engagement in both Canadian and American history — to continue for a 'very long' time." In his exact words, “Afghanistan will be a very long military venture.”


His position will be confirmed at the NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal next week, as will a major commitment demanded by the U.S.-dominated military bloc's new Strategic Concept to be adopted at the meeting: The retention of nuclear arms in NATO's arsenal and the continued stationing of American nuclear bombs in Europe. Whiteside also argued: "Canada says that it doesn’t need ballistic missiles. But Canada is part of a nuclear policy alliance. There’s no getting around that...." [3]

On November 8, the day before the McClatchy article appeared, the spokesman for the 152,000-troop, 50-nation, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, German Brigadier-General Josef Blotz, stated that "no timetable has been set for withdrawal of coalition troops from Afghanistan."

Blotz confirmed that "There has been no timetable yet."

In regard to transferring security control to Afghan forces, he said, "We will not [proceed] according to a fixed timetable, it will be carried out based on conditions to be achieved over the next couple of years." [4]

On November 11, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada spoke on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Seoul, South Korea and said that "he's decided...to keep troops in Afghanistan in a noncombat training role after Canada's combat mission ends in 2011."

Associated Press cited a senior Canadian government official verifying that his nation "will keep 750 military trainers and 250 support staff in Afghanistan until 2014...." [5]

A similarly bleak perspective on any withdrawal - or beginning of one - next year was offered on the preceding day by the commander of British forces in southern Afghanistan, Major General Nick Carter, who "gave a devastating assessment of the war effort in Afghanistan."

Carter admitted that "In my tour I lost 302 soldiers. Most of them American. The cost in blood and treasure has been enormous." He added that NATO wouldn't know if it was winning - whatever that word signifies in a war already in its tenth year and escalating to new heights by the day - until June of 2011, "when the fighting season begins again" and the Atlantic Alliance and the Pentagon can "compare Taliban attacks with this year." [6]

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Tony Blair 'to be called back' to Iraq war inquiry to answer questions about 'gaps' in his evidence

Daily Mail

Tony Blair is to be recalled by the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq War to answer new questions about 'gaps' in the evidence he gave earlier this year.

The former Prime Minister is likely to be asked to clarify the political build-up to the 2003 American-led invasion.

He is also expected to further explain the legality of Britain's participation in the controversial war.

Sir John Chilcot will write to Mr Blair next month to ask him to attend a public hearing in early 2011, reported The Times.

During his six-hour testimony earlier this year, Mr Blair mounted a vigorous defence of the invasion and insisted he had no regrets over removing Saddam Hussein.

He denied he took the country to war on the basis of a 'lie' over the dictator's supposed weapons of mass destruction.

At the end of his session one member of the audience shouted: 'What, no regrets? Come on' while others heckled 'You are a liar', 'And a murderer'.

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Injustice in the age of Obama

Barack Obama, a former law professor, should have a healthy respect for civil liberties, but his actions suggest not.

Cindy Sheehan
AlJazeera

Since being the defendant in about six trials after I was arrested for protesting the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations, it’s my experience that the police lie. Period.

However the lies don’t stop at street law enforcement level. From lies about WMD and connections to "al Qaeda," almost every institution of so-called authority - the Pentagon, State Department, CIA, FBI, all the way up to the Oval Office and back down - lie. Not white lies, but big, Mother of all BS (MOAB) lies that lead to the destruction of innocent lives. I.F Stone was most definitely on the ball when he proclaimed, "Governments lie".

Having clarified that, I would now like to examine a case that should be enshrined in the travesty of the US Justice Hall of Shame.

In February of this year, Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani mother of three, was convicted in US Federal (kangaroo) Court of seven counts, including two counts of "attempted murder of an American." On September 23, Judge Berman, who displayed an open bias against Dr. Siddiqui, sentenced her to 86 years in prison.

The tapestry of lies about Dr. Siddiqui - a cognitive neuroscientist, schooled at MIT and Brandeis - was woven during the Bush regime but fully maintained during her trial and sentencing this year by the Obama (in)Justice Department.

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Gen. Hugh Shelton: Clinton Official Suggested Letting U.S. Plane Be Shot Down To Provoke War With Iraq

Jason Linkins
Huffington Post

In the publicity sheet that St. Martin's Press has been sending out to spur interest in General Hugh Shelton's new memoir, Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior, the last highlight is a doozy: "A high-ranking cabinet member suggests intentionally flying an American airplane on a low pass over Baghdad so as to guarantee it will be shot down, thus creating a natural excuse to reltaliate and go to war."

Turns out the incident took place during the Clinton administration, and Shelton's response to the suggestion...well, let's just say it more than lives up to the title of the memoir. Over at Salon's War Room,

The hair on the back of my neck bristled, my teeth clenched, and my fists tightened. I was so mad I was about to explode. I looked across the table, thinking about the pilot in the U-2 and responded, "Of course we can ..." which prompted a big smile on the official's face.

"You can?" was the excited reply.

"Why, of course we can," I countered. "Just as soon as we get your ass qualified to fly it, I will have it flown just as low and slow as you want to go."

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