United States Launches Airstrikes in Syria - Real Target Is Assad

Image source

Brandon Turbeville

Late Monday evening, September 22, the United States began the first of its airstrikes inside Syria. 

Although details are still murky about where the attacks took place and what targets were actually hit, the Pentagon has acknowledged responsibility for the bombings.

According to USA Today, Rear Admiral John Kirby stated that "I can confirm that U.S. military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against ISIL terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles. Given that these operations are ongoing, we are not in a position to provide additional details at this time."

USA Today reports that the strikes were carried out both by bomber jets and by ships firing cruise missiles. It is said that the strikes have hit about 20 ISIS targets, including what is being called “headquarters buildings” for “militants who have based their movement in Syria.”

The attacks were not carried out with the coordination and cooperation of the Syrian government. Nor were they carried out with Syrian government permission.

Obama's Speech to America: Stop ISIL by Funding ISIL

Brandon Turbeville

As many had expected as soon as the announcement was made that Barack Obama would make a speech on September 10 regarding his strategy against ISIS, the U.S. President has confirmed that he reserves the right to engage in airstrikes inside Syria.

The President outlined a four-point strategy that would, according to him, "degrade and ultimately destroy" ISIS. Obama stated that, "if left unchecked, ISIS could prove a threat across the middle eastern region" and possibly the American "homeland." Obama warned that ISIS terrorists originating from the United States and Europe could return home and engage in terrorist attacks on both American and European soil.

The President also announced his desire to create a "broad coalition" to "roll back the terrorist threat."

Flight MH17 - What You're Not Being Told

Who was REALLY responsible for the downing of flight MH-17? Let's take a look at the facts.  

On July 17th, 2014 two major events took place: Malaysian flight MH17 was downed over eastern Ukraine, presumably by a missile, and Israel began a ground invasion of Gaza. Israel's invasion was granted an almost complete media blackout. The MH17 tragedy, however, got full coverage, and was immediately propagandized. Read more



Please visit SCGNEWS today for full story, sources, transcript and bonus clips.

You can visit our MH17 article archive here.  

Poll:  Who do you think shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17?


Be the Change! Donate Today!

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

The Palestinians’ Right to Self-Defense

By Chris Hedges

  A relative inspects a Palestinian family’s apartment, destroyed by an Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya on July 19. AP/Lefteris Pitarakis

If Israel insists, as the Bosnian Serbs did in Sarajevo, on using the weapons of industrial warfare against a helpless civilian population then that population has an inherent right to self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. The international community will have to either act to immediately halt Israeli attacks and lift the blockade of Gaza or acknowledge the right of the Palestinians to use weapons to defend themselves.

No nation, including any in the Muslim world, appears willing to intervene to protect the Palestinians. No world body, including the United Nations, appears willing or able to pressure Israel through sanctions to conform to the norms of international law. And the longer we in the world community fail to act, the worse the spiral of violence will become.

Israel does not have the right to drop 1,000-pound iron fragmentation bombs on Gaza. It does not have the right to pound Gaza with heavy artillery and with shells lobbed from gunboats. It does not have the right to send in mechanized ground units or to target hospitals, schools and mosques, along with Gaza’s water and electrical systems. It does not have the right to displace over 100,000 people from their homes. The entire occupation, under which Israel has nearly complete control of the sea, the air and the borders of Gaza, is illegal.

Violence, even when employed in self-defense, is a curse. It empowers the ruthless and punishes the innocent. It leaves in its aftermath horrific emotional and physical scars. But, as I learned in Sarajevo during the 1990s Bosnian War, when forces bent on your annihilation attack you relentlessly, and when no one comes to your aid, you must aid yourself. When Sarajevo was being hit with 2,000 shells a day and under heavy sniper fire in the summer of 1995 no one among the suffering Bosnians spoke to me about wanting to mount nonviolent resistance. No one among them saw the U.N.-imposed arms embargo against the Bosnian government as rational, given the rain of sniper fire and the 90-millimeter tank rounds and 155-millimeter howitzer shells that were exploding day and night in the city. The Bosnians were reduced, like the Palestinians in Gaza, to smuggling in light weapons through clandestine tunnels. Their enemies, the Serbs—like the Israelis in the current conflict—were constantly trying to blow up tunnels. The Bosnian forces in Sarajevo, with their meager weapons, desperately attempted to hold the trench lines that circled the city. And it is much the same in Gaza. It was only repeated NATO airstrikes in the fall of 1995 that prevented the Bosnian-held areas from being overrun by advancing Serbian forces. The Palestinians cannot count on a similar intervention.

The number of dead in Gaza resulting from the Israeli assault has topped 650, and about 80 percent have been civilians. The number of wounded Palestinians is over 4,000 and a substantial fraction of these victims are children. At what point do the numbers of dead and wounded justify self-defense? 5,000? 10,000? 20,000? At what point do Palestinians have the elemental right to protect their families and their homes?

Article 51 does not answer these specific questions, but the International Court of Justice does in the case of Nicaragua v. United States. The court ruled in that case that a state must endure an armed attack before it can resort to self-defense. The definition of an armed attack, in addition to being “action by regular armed forces across an international border,” includes sending or sponsoring armed bands, mercenaries or irregulars that commit acts of force against another state. The court held that any state under attack must first request outside assistance before undertaking armed self-defense. According to U.N. Charter Article 51, a state’s right to self-defense ends when the Security Council meets the terms of the article by “tak[ing] the measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.”

The failure of the international community to respond has left the Palestinians with no choice. The United States, since Israel’s establishment in 1948, has vetoed in the U.N. Security Council more than 40 resolutions that sought to curb Israel’s lust for occupation and violence against the Palestinians. And it has ignored the few successful resolutions aimed at safeguarding Palestinian rights, such as Security Council Resolution 465, passed in 1980.

Resolution 465 stated that the “Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 is applicable to the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem.” The resolution went on to warn Israel that “all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”

Read More>>

You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?

Be the Change! Donate Today!

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

The Most Moral Army in the World

Dr. Mads Gilbert MD PhD
Courtesy:  The Deen Show

Letter from Norwegian hero doctor, Dr. Mads Gilbert MD PhD, who is in Gaza right now

Dearest friends -

The last night was extreme. The "ground invasion" of Gaza resulted in scores and carloads with maimed, torn apart, bleeding, shivering, dying - all sorts of injured Palestinians, all ages, all civilians, all innocent.

The heroes in the ambulances and in all of Gaza's hospitals are working 12-24hrs shifts, grey from fatigue and inhuman workloads (without payment all in Shifa for the last 4 months), they care, triage, try to understand the incomprehensible chaos of bodies, sizes, limbs, walking, not walking, breathing, not breathing, bleeding, not bleeding humans. HUMANS!

Now, once more treated like animals by "the most moral army in the world" (sic!).

CrossTalk: Gaza's Grief

How much longer will Israel's latest invasion of Gaza last? Does it enhance Israel's security? Can Israel and Palestine live in peace or is it a war without end? CrossTalking with Nora Lester Murad, Flynt Leverett and Martin van Creveld.



You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  

Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?


Be the Change! Donate Today!

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

132 Children Killed by ‘Operation Protective Edge’ Since July 7th

The Pontiac Tribune

The name, age, sex and location of 132 of the 155 Palestinian children killed have been collected by the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights.

Over 3300 have been injured, including 822 children and 572 women, with some losing limbs and others disabled for life.

The casualties listed below are victims of Israeli military attacks on Gaza since Tuesday July 8th.

Israeli casualties follow, at the end of the list.

They Aren’t Hiding It Anymore: Calls for Genocide, Rape of Palestinian Women enter Israeli Mainstream

Global Research
Jonathan Cook:  The Blog from Nazareth

As we watch the horrifying slaughter unfold in Gaza, bear in mind the Israeli psychosis that fuels and justifies it. Here are comments from three rightwing Israelis – two leading politicians and a professor – who very much reflect a strain of mainstream thinking in Israel, one that the international media largely avoids noting.

Each, in their different ways, is advocating a genocide of the Palestinians.

Israel’s right to defend itself

Joseph Massad, The Electronic Intifada

Palestinians inspect a mosque in Gaza City destroyed by Israel during its 22 days of attacks on the Gaza Strip that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians, 18 January 2009. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)

Common Western political wisdom has it that when Western countries support Israeli military action against Arab countries or the Palestinian people, they do so because they support Israel’s right to defend itself against its enemies.

This has always been established wisdom in Israel itself, even before the colonial settlement was established, wherein its predatory army is ironically named the Israel Defense Forces, not unlike the South African apartheid army, which was also known as the South African Defense Forces. This defensive nomenclature is hardly exclusive to Israel and South Africa, as many countries rushed after World War II to rename their Ministries of “War” as Ministries of “Defense.” Still, Israel’s allegedly defensive actions define every single war the colonial settlement has ever engaged in, even and especially when it starts these wars, which it has done in all cases except in 1973.

Is Rula Jebreal right about US Media Bias against Palestinians?

Juan Cole

Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal points to the overwhelming bias in US media against the Palestinians, calling NBC to account for having tried to remove an Arab-American reporter from Gaza after he reported the Israeli navy’s deliberate killing of children on the beach. She also points to the stranglehold the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobby has on congressional politics toward Israel. She doesn’t mention but should the pressure organizations like CAMERA, well-heeled and powerful fanatics devoted to punishing American journalists who tell the truth about Israel and Palestine. I actually think NBC is better than some others on this issue, so it is a little unfortunate that they should take the brunt of Jebreal’s understandable frustration.

I don’t think either of the people she was talking to understood the problem. The show begins with Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu and promises more of him. No Palestinian leader is interviewed or apparently considered for an interview! It is alleged to Jebreal that her being allowed to complain on air at all is a mercy (she isn’t actually allowed to say much about the war). It is also alleged that just reporting on all the children the Israeli military has killed is somehow even-handed; in fact if the killings are represented as necessary that isn’t true. Almost no US media admits that indiscriminate fire in civilian areas is a war crime. (Rula comes in at about 7 minutes, below).

Read Full Article

You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?

Be the Change! Donate Today!

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Western media caught trying to frame Putin over flight MH17

Is Western media trying to frame Putin and destroy his presidency? 

Mainstream media in western countries have rushed to blame Russia and pro Russia Separatists for the missile shot on MH17 flying over Ukraine on Thursday.

However, at this stage there is not enough evidence to support either claims.

The video below reveals another perspective that balances out the mainstream media bias:

Founder and leader of 21^st Century Australia, Jamie McIntyre shares his views regarding the media coverage of this issue:

Western media is attempting to use the Malaysia Airways disaster to destroy Putin’s Presidency. The media is trying to lay blame at his feet despite little evidence that suggests Russia would order such an attack. This rhetoric is not only deceptive but also dangerous.

Gaza Questions Confound State Department Spokesperson

You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?

Be the Change! Donate Today!

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

The Fall of Iraq - What You Aren't Being Told

Be the Change! Donate Today!

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Because Happiness is Greater Than Any of Life's Obstacles: 'Yes We Can Be Happy, Yes We Are From Gaza'

Gaza Style





You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?

Be the Change! Donate Today!

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Putin calls for an end to conflict in Ukraine as pressure builds on Moscow

Full transcript:

In connection with the terrible tragic events that happened in the skies over Donetsk, I would like to explain once again Russian attitude to events that are taking place in Ukraine.

We have repeatedly called on all parties of the conflict to immediately stop the bloodshed and sit down at the negotiating table. We strongly believe that if military action in the East of Ukraine was not renewed on the 28th of June, this tragedy most likely wouldn’t have happened. However, no one should have the right to use this tragedy to pursue egoistic political aims. Such events should unite and not divide people. It is necessary that all the people who are accounted for the situation in the region took more responsibility and reported to their own people and to the peoples of those countries whose representatives have become victims of this disaster.

Everything must be done to ensure the safety of international experts on the crash scene. Today representatives of Donbass, Donetsk, representatives of Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine and Malaysian experts are already working there.  But this is not enough. It is necessary to ensure that at the crash site works a full team of experts under the auspices of ICAO, the corresponding international commission. We must do everything to provide them with full and absolute security and all humanitarian corridors necessary for their operation.

In its turn, Russia will do everything possible to transfer the conflict in Eastern Ukraine from today's military phase to a discussion at the negotiating table, using exclusively peaceful and diplomatic means.

Be the Change! Donate Today!

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

'Free Palestine!' World marches to protest Gaza victims

The BBC showed only a few SECONDS of the London march. And in Paris pro-Palestinian marches are now ILLEGAL.

You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?

Be the Change! Donate Today!

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Asymmetric Warfare in Gaza: "The Gate of Hell has Opened"

"The gate of hell has opened"

Mass runaways from Shijaia toward UNRWA centers of #Gaza! 
Courtesy: @Mohammed Y. Ismail 

Is the Israel/Palestine conflict a classic case of Asymmetric warfare?

In his recent article, Asymmetric Warfare in Gaza, Paul R. Pillar, provides significant insights about the use of the term in relationship to the ongoing conflict and recent attacks:

Perhaps the usual use of the term asymmetric warfare has contributed to warping our ability to evaluate what has been going on in this conflict...In major, glaring respects, however, this conflict is highly asymmetric, and not only in one side's physical ability to inflict far greater destruction on the other side. The larger Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one in which the far more powerful actor is occupying (in the case of the West Bank) or strangling (in the case of the Gaza Strip) the other side.

NBC News provides a terrifying glimpse of "asymmetric warfare" taking place right now in GAZA.

CNN: Death comes early in Gaza

CNN

Children and youth are often the victims of the violence in Gaza. CNN's Ben Wedeman reports.


You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?

Be the Change! Donate Today!

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

I've Never Seen the Israel / Palestine Conflict Illustrated More Uniquely Than This

Films for Action



Be the Change! Donate Today!

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Was Putin’s Presidential Airplane the Real Target of Missile that Brought Down MH17? (VIDEO)

Eric Odom

Liberty News

Most media outlets are refusing to ask tough questions to figure out what happened in Ukraine that brought MH 17 down. The story is all about whether Ukraine or Russian brought the plane down, but very little talk exists about why.

Could it be a ploy for Russia to provoke the world to turn against Ukraine? Or the other way around, perhaps?

The following YouTube video report is going viral in response to the Interfax reporter’s statement.

Read More

You can visit our MH17 article archive here.  Poll:  Who do you think shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17?

Be the Change! Donate Today!

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner