War Is A Crime .org

Copyright 2012 Face the Facts USA

Our so-called self-government rarely agrees with what we tell pollsters, and yet it does what it does with our acceptance.  We may have fallen for the pretense that we're powerless.  Our ignorance and xenophobia should never be underestimated as explanations for what we do.  But consider the following public policy and then tell me the clearest explanation isn't that we all want to rush our arrival at death's door.

Not only do we spend over half of public discretionary funds on war preparation without a particular war in mind, but we spend a huge chunk of that on weapons we can never use without destroying life on the planet, including in our own country, including if we use those weapons and nobody else retaliates.  The earth has one atmosphere, and if we wreck it with nuclear weapons, it won't matter that we've done so on another continent.

We put these evil, useless, apocalyptic weapons on ships and sail them as close as possible to the most dangerous spots on earth.  Then we threaten war with the countries they're floating next to.  We stick them on planes and fly them around the skies. Despite hundreds of near-disasters due to human and mechanical mistakes over the years, we spread these weapons (and the energy technology that is closely related to them) to more and more countries.  We ignore our treaty obligation to disarm and falsely accuse a nation that has no nuclear weapons yet of violating the treaty, building hostility and the likelihood of war.

The nuclear weapons on planes and ships make nuclear missiles on land obsolete.  The United States has 450 land-based Minuteman III nuclear missiles.  They are easily targeted.  And should they all be destroyed, and should we want to seize the opportunity to all hurry up and die together, the bombs on planes and ships could do the job many times over.

Yet the land-based missiles in the United States are not only still sitting there ready to serve no purpose whatsoever, but they're on high alert.  These nuclear-armed missiles could be sent by a U.S. president in 13 minutes or less.  Thirteen minutes, with the very real possibility that false information, an electronic glitch or bad signal, or an error in human judgment, would bring the world as we know it to an end.

President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor was about to wake him up in the middle of the night to inform the President that 220 Soviet nuclear missiles were headed our way, when he learned that someone had stuck a game tape into the computer by mistake.  Three years later a Soviet Lieutenant Colonel acted out the same scene, with the computer glitch on his side this time.  Then in 1984 another U.S. computer glitch led to the quick decision to park an armored car on top of a missile silo to prevent the start of the apocalypse.  And again in 1995, the Soviet Union almost responded to a U.S. nuclear attack that proved to be a real missile, but one with a weather satellite rather than a nuke.  One Pentagon report documents 563 nuclear mistakes, malfunctions, and false alarms over the years  -- so far.

Minuteman III missiles would not, and nothing can, prevent retaliation.  Even without retaliation, their unilateral use would ruin the earth's atmosphere -- all over the earth.  The missiles' only function is to kill others in a process that kills us too.

Is that what we want?  I'm not imagining we have a democracy.  I'm not discounting the power of financial corruption.  I'm not suggesting that we are all driven by the same lust for power that moves elected officials and their staff.  But look at popular opinion.  War is exciting.  Peace is dull.  Oil drilling is sexy.  Solar panels are lame.  Storms are cool.  Safety and survival are not fashionable at all.  We have 450 missiles whose sole purpose is to kill us all.  They cost us a fortune every year, while we whine and moan about money as if it were all that mattered.  And where is the resistance?  It's in a handful of activists.

You don't want to die, you say? Freud was a freak? You don't envy penises or intend your accidents or think the slightest little bit about Bill Clinton when you see a cigar?  O.K.  I'm thrilled to hear it.  Go ahead and prove me wrong.

An easy immediate step toward sanity would be to de-alert the missiles so that 24 to 72 hours would be needed to launch.  This would increase our security by reducing the likelihood of an accidental or unauthorized launch.  Again, those intent on achieving nuclear doomsday could rest assured that U.S. submarines and bombers would remain able to complete that job many times over.

A second obvious step that would also work wonders for our federal budget would be to decommission these missiles.

You don't have to click the links above.  You don't have to help end this end-game policy.  But don't come crying to me that you want to live.  I'll not be inclined to believe it.

The presidential election of 2004 left much to be desired.  Millions of votes were suppressed, and the evidence is overwhelming that votes were flipped by interested parties.  Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman summarize:

"The widespread use of electronic voting machines from ES&S, and of Diebold software maintained by Triad, allowed [Ohio Secretary of State Ken] Blackwell to electronically flip a 4% Kerry lead to a 2% Bush victory in the dead of election night. ES&S, Diebold and Triad were all owned or operated by Republican partisans. The shift of more than 300,000 votes after 12:20 a.m. election night was a virtual statistical impossibility. It was engineered by Michael Connell, an IT specialist long affiliated with the Bush Family. Blackwell gave Connell's Ohio-based GovTech the contract to count Ohio's votes, which was done on servers housed in the Old Pioneer Bank Building in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Thus the Ohio vote tally was done on servers that also carried the e-mail for Karl Rove and the national Republican Party. Connell died in a mysterious plane crash in December, 2008, after being subpoenaed in the King-Lincoln-Bronzeville federal lawsuit focused on how the 2004 election was decided (disclosure: we were attorney and plaintiff in that suit).  Diebold's founder, Walden O'Dell, had vowed to deliver Ohio's electoral votes---and thus the presidency---to his friend George W. Bush. That it was done in part on electronic voting machines and software O'Dell happened to own (Diebold has since changed hands twice) remains a cautionary red flag for those who believe merely winning the popular vote will give Barack Obama a second term."

There are no doubt honest people who have looked at the evidence and disagree that the election was stolen in 2004.  There might even be -- although I can't imagine how -- people who have looked at Ohio 2004 and concluded that what went down was a respectable electoral process up to all international standards and beyond all possibility of doubt.  I'm even willing to concede that someone somewhere honestly thinks allowing private companies to count our votes on computers in a manner that can never be verified is a reasonable approach to democratic self-governance, given the complete absence from all recent history of any private company ever engaging in any questionable practice that might radically increase its profits.

But, according to a credible report from 2005, one key person who eventually came to understand that Ohio was stolen was the candidate from whom it was stolen: John Kerry.  Kerry reportedly said that he did not want to speak out about this because he would be accused of being a sore loser.  His running mate John Edwards, who -- by various accounts -- opposed conceding the election in 2004, has since been disgraced as an adulterer.  Let's set aside for the moment the question of whether adultery is worse than election theft.  What I want to know is this: would allowing the 2012 election to be stolen be a price worth paying to avoid the unpleasantness of John Kerry being called a sore loser on tee-vee?

Why would the 2012 election be stolen?  Well, there is the matter of the 2012 primaries.  And then there are the basic facts as laid out by the least likely media outlet in the world to twist them in favor of my argument: Fox News.  Again, let Fitrakis-Wasserman, or Wassrakis for short, summarize:

"Despite an almost total blackout from the corporate media, the Romney family has a personal ownership (through the investment firms Solamere and H.I.G. Capital) in Hart Intercivic, which owns, maintains, programs and will tabulate alleged votes on machines in the critical swing states of Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Colorado. Despite various official disclaimers, the election could be decided on Hart machines producing 'vote counts' with little connection to how 18 million people actually voted.  It is inconceivable that the Romney chain of ownership in Hart Intercivic will not influence how that goes. …  [T]here is no legally binding way by which a professionally rigged electronic vote count can be overturned or even definitively discovered except through the use of unabridged but legally inconsequential exit polling.  Scytl, a Barcelona-based e-voting company, has been contracted to count votes in 26 states through the easily rigged Federal Overseas Voting Program. FVAP is ostensibly geared to let military and other overseas Americans vote absentee by electronic means. But Scytl is positioned to intercept and redistribute such overseas electronic votes as needed through its spyware sister company, CarrierIQ. In a close race, these 'votes' can be distributed at will to make the difference in critical swing states.  Other key voting machine companies, such as ES&S, Dominion, Command Central and more, are controlled by major corporations, some of whose owners are outspoken in their support for the Republican Party. … Republicans hold the governorships in the nine critical swing states of Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, New Mexico and Arizona. They also hold the secretaries of state offices in all of those states but Wisconsin. Electronically flipping the vote count in any or all of them, with Hart Intercivic, Scytl, Dominion or other technologies, can be done quickly, simply and invisibly, with no public recourse."

Perhaps you're thinking that just because a crime can be undetectably committed is no reason to create the slanderous idea that it would be.  However, we are dealing here with people already, beyond any question, disenfranchising millions by throwing away registration forms, stripping registration rolls, instructing voters to vote on the wrong day, warning voters they may be arrested for voting, and flooding the media with dishonest advertisements for candidates.

If anything disgusts me more than the false charade of democracy distracting most of my fellow citizens from the struggle to develop actual democracy, it is death bed confessions.  I don't want to ever hear one from John Kerry.  I hope that he may live many more years.  But when he dies, I don't want to hear any Robert McNamara-like truth telling spilling out of his horselike face.  I want to hear it now, this week, prior to the 2012 election.  I want it out there preemptively.  I want people prepared to look for election fraud.  And I want candidates prepared to point to it if it appears, big as life, staring us all in the face as it did eight years ago.

Or perhaps you're counting on Barack Obama, whose supreme value is "bipartisanship," to speak up for himself unprompted, in the complete absence of a swift kick to his pusillanimous posterior.

Speak now, Senator Kerry.  Show courage unlike the perverse daredevilism required to participate in war.  Show courage when we need it.  We need it now.  Speak.

Some friends of mine have gotten arrested more times than I can count now for the offense of protesting drone use outside Hancock Air Field near Syracuse, N.Y.  Sometimes they've blocked the gates to the base.  Often they've been aware of the risk of being arrested.  But they've gone into court and argued that the larger crime is being committed inside the base by drone pilots.  The protesters have gone into court and said things like this:

"I am proud to accept the consequences of my acts and any jail time.  I do not want any suspended sentence. If you give me one, also please let me know how I can violate it before I leave the courtroom." -- Elliott Adams

If you're among the tens of millions who have assiduously avoided becoming aware of major news stories, what my friends are protesting will come as a shock: President Obama has developed a program of murder, with drones as the primary weapon, that is unprecedented in size, extent, claims of legality, and almost-protest-free acceptability.  On Obama's list of people to kill are men, women, and children, Americans, and non-Americans.  He has targeted and killed people in all of those categories.  He has targeted and killed people whose names he did not know but who showed a pattern of behavior that suggested they might be resisting the U.S. occupation of a foreign nation.  And the vast majority, almost all in fact, of the people our president has killed have simply been men, women, and children who were in the wrong place at the wrong time and not on the list at all.  All of this is done in secret, without Congress, without courts, and without the public.  It's done at a scale that can only properly be termed "drone wars."  It's done in nations where the United States was not previously engaged in any ground war but now is sending in troops as a result of the inevitable blowback from the drone wars.  And the news stories are generated by the White House, which wants to brag about this effort.

I apologize to informed readers for passing along all of that old news, but volunteers keep phoning me from the Obama campaign and MoveOn.org who've never heard of this at all.  They always promise to read up on it and get back to me, and then a different ignorant do-gooder phones the next day instead.

What is new, as far as I know, is what the police in the town of Dewitt, near Syracuse, have now done to try to prevent drone protests outside Hancock Air Field.  They've found, out of all the individuals stationed on the base, one particular coward by the name of Earl A. Evans.  The protesters I've spoken with had never heard of him before.  They don't know who he is or what he looks like.  Here's a photo I've found.  He is apparently a Lieutenant Colonel in charge of the 174^th Fighter Wing Mission Support Group.  I suspect he might have access to some troops and some weaponry.  But the Dewitt Town Court has banned some 17 nonviolent peace activists with posters from coming anywhere near him. 

Each oh-so-dangerous demonstrator has been issued an order of protection -- not to protect them but to protect the Lieutenant Colonel from them.  Under this order, they've been told they will be arrested even if they demonstrate in permitted areas near the base.  Presumably that is the order's real purpose, to prevent demonstrations.  But what the order says is that each nonviolent opponent of institutionalized mass murder may be sent to prison for up to 7 years if they go near the home of Earl A. Evans (although they don't know where that is and have not been told), the school of Earl A. Evans (although they don't know what or where that is and have not been told), the business of Earl A. Evans at 6001 East Molloy Road in Dewitt, N.Y. (which is the military base), or the place of employment of Earl A. Evans at the same address.  They are required to refrain from all communication with Evans -- and Evans in particular, as no one else on the base is named.  And they are specifically forbidden from doing the following things to Evans (but not others?):

"assault, stalking, harassment, aggravated harassment, menacing, reckless endangerment, strangulation, criminal obstruction of breathing or circulation, disorderly conduct, criminal mischief, sexual abuse, sexual misconduct, forcible touching, intimidation, threats or any criminal offense or interference with the victim or victims of, or designated witnesses to the alleged offense and such members of the family or household of such victim(s) or witness(es) as shall be specifically named Earl A. Evans."

After all that, who couldn't begin to almost feel sorry for the poor victim of these criminal protesters!  I searched in vain to find any among them, however, who had ever contemplated engaging in criminal obstruction of breathing or circulation with this victim they'd never heard of or any other human being.  Instead, they seemed oddly focused on preventing the criminal killing, dismemberment, and traumatizing of large numbers of children, women, and men in places like Pakistan.

Elliott Adams, one of the protesters, said: "This looks to me like an outrageous court action to block us from using first amendment rights to comply with international law.  We have been arrested a number of times blocking one of the entrances to Hancock Air National Guard Base while trying to serve an indictment to the base for violation of international law with the drones operated from the base."

Adams called the order of protection "ludicrous."  "Apparently," he said, "someone forgot to inform the judge that the commander at Hancock is the one with all the Humvees, the chain-link fence with barbed wire on top, the M16s and M4 assault rifles, not to mention the F16 fighter jets and the MQ9 drones, among other armaments. He has trained in and made a profession of aggressive violent behavior. By contrast the citizens petitioning their government for redress are the ones who have taken an oath of nonviolence."

When nonviolent activist Paul Frazier asked if the order to stay away from the base included staying away from the weekly permitted demonstration area across the street from the base, Onondaga County Sheriff's Department Lieutenant Daily said that if the "victim," Evans, finds it irritating then yes it would be a violation.  Sheriff's Dept. Deputy Ferazolli then said, "I will do one better.  If I see you there I will arrest you, and it will be a felony."

I'll give them this, at least: the brave law-enforcement officers in Dewitt and Onondaga have finally figured out a way for the Department of Defense to do something defensive.

Would that the same could be said for all of us.  I write this on a Sunday as tens of millions of Americans take an hour or more to devote to millennia-old superstitious rituals aimed at making the world a better place.  Imagine if they also, or alternatively, spent 10 minutes making two phone calls, one to the Obama campaign and one to the Romney campaign.  Imagine if the message were: "Unless you adopt the following commandment, none of us will cheer for, vote for, or cooperate with your candidate: Thou Shalt Not Kill."

Imagine the lives that could be saved.

Go forth and do likewise.

A TSA agent stole a woman’s jewelry? Nah, impossible. Never happens! 

Read the rest at TSA News.

Paul Wellstone: Tenth Anniversary of His Assassination

by Stephen Lendman

October 25 marked the 10th anniversary of Wellstone's death. Was it accidental or an assassination to silence a sadly missed principled voice? Convincing evidence suggests foul play. More on that below.

Trafficking Anti-Iranian Propaganda

by Stephen Lendman

American media scoundrels honed it to an art form. Britain's BBC and commercial media regularly feature it. So does a newly licensed anti-Iranian TV channel. More on Raha TV below.

On US and UK television, truth is verboten. Last January, Britain banned Press TV broadcasts. In a disturbing move without valid reasons, the British Office of Communications (Ofcom) pulled the plug disgracefully.

Bottom line: The president is complicit in creating an increasingly unequal -- and unjust -- society

By Matt Stoller

So why oppose Obama? Simply, it is the shape of the society Obama is crafting that I oppose, and I intend to hold him responsible, such as I can, for his actions in creating it. Many Democrats are disappointed in Obama. Some feel he’s a good president with a bad Congress. Some feel he’s a good man, trying to do the right thing, but not bold enough. Others think it’s just the system, that anyone would do what he did. I will get to each of these sentiments, and pragmatic questions around the election, but I think it’s important to be grounded in policy outcomes. Not, what did Obama try to do, in his heart of hearts? But what kind of America has he actually delivered? And the chart below answers the question. This chart reflects the progressive case against Obama.

READ THE REST.

Over 150 dead since Eid ceasefire began in Syria – reports - RT

UN Security Council Refuses to Condemn Damascus Blast - RIA Novosti

VIDEO: Ceasefire??? Terrorist car bombing in Daf al-Shawk - YouTube

Syrian Air Force & Air Defense Overview - Institute for the Study of War

NPR Interview - Variety Of Weapons Increases In Syrian Conflict - Additional Information - Brown Moses Blog

Aazaz Rebels Arrest Lebanese Journalist in Syria, Oqab Saqr Negotiating his Release — Naharnet

VIDEO: Syrian opposition leader threatens Alawites with ethnic cleansing - LiveLeak.com

VIDEO:  Syrian rebels execute captured Syrian soldiers - YouTube

VIDEO: Rebel sniper prevents Syrians from helping an alleged policeman - LiveLeak.com

------------------------------------------------------------------

Syrian rebels and Kurdish militiamen clash in Aleppo - guardian.co.uk

VIDEO; Kurdish militias clash with Syrian rebels in Asrafiyah disrict of Aleppo- LiveLeak.com

VIDEO; People of the Syriacs District in Aleppo Tell their Experience with FSA - LiveLeak.com

VIDEO: Funeral of murdered Christian bishop Fadi Haddad - LiveLeak.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Influx of Iraqi Shiites to Syria Widens War’s Scope - NYTimes.com

Origin of Syrian shells into Turkey unclear, US general says - hurriyetdailynews 

No Syria-related US military presence in Turkey: Turkish army - DAWN.COM

VIDEO; Syrian rebels find Iranian cash in the wallets of Assad's militiamen - The Times of Israel

To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com

By John Heuer

By Cathy Breen

Najaf, Iraq --  “Come to eat” the man cries out. “Come!” he calls invitingly.  And they do.  In the thousands, in the millions.  They come streaming into Karbala from all directions to the sacred shrine of their holy martyrs, Imam Hussein and Abbas. 

I have just returned to Najaf after spending some days in Karbala visiting a good friend of ours there and getting to know his dear family.  In both my going from and my retuning to Najaf, I was moved by the sight of pilgrims walking on the side of the road to Karbala. 

These holy commemorations and pilgrimages were not allowed under Saddam.  The regime collapsed on April 9, 2003.   Less than two weeks later, on the 20^th of April was the 40^th commemoration of the death of Imam Hussein.  Approximately four million pilgrims travelled to Karbala that year.  I was in Baghdad at that time and remember young Shia friends telling us with deep emotion and excitement about taking part in a similar pilgrimage, a treasured tradition so long denied them.  One can imagine how disconcerting and foreign such a phenomena was to the U.S. troops who were occupying Karbala and the surrounding country.  “How can we control such numbers?”  they asked.  My host was one of the persons who told them,  “Just stay on your bases.”  Fortunately they listened , and only patrolled overhead with helicopters.  Now Karbala receives between 12 and 14 million during the feast that remembers the death of Imam Hussein.

Netanyahu/Lieberman Unite for War

By Stephen Lendman

American crimes of war and against humanity perhaps exceed all other rogue states in history combined.

Pound-for-pound, however, Israeli lawlessness matches the world's worst. Long ago, it graduated from a regional menace to a global one.

Netanyahu Pledges Continued Lawlessness

by Stephen Lendman

What else can be expected from Israel's worst ever leader. He's a serial lawbreaker. He deplores democratic values. His contempt for non-Jews is palpable. He calls Palestinians sub-humans. It shows in how he treats them.

No Eid ceasefire for Syria: Car bomb rocks Damascus killing children, fighting rages at checkpoints (PHOTOS, VIDEO) — RT

General Command of the Syrian Army: Terrorist Groups Continued Committing Breaches of Ceasefire on Friday Afternoon - SANA, Syria

In Aleppo, Syria cease-fire was short-lived - CSMonitor.com

----------------------------------------------------------------

Was Syrian weapons shipment factor in ambassador’s Benghazi visit? - Fox News

Benghazi Blowback Confirmed: US Intel Confirms Attack Linked to Pipeline of Libyan Jihadis to Syria - Daily Kos

US intel believes some Benghazi attackers tied to al Qaeda in Iraq – CNN.com Blogs

The Benghazi Suspect in the Ambassador Killing Was Headed to Syria - emptywheel

Glen Doherty, Former Navy SEAL Killed in Libya, Was on Intel Mission to Track Weapons - ABC News

Syrian rebels squabble over weapons as biggest shipload arrives from Libya - The Times

Attack in Libya Was Major Blow to C.I.A. Efforts - NYTimes.com

Ambassador Stevens warned of Islamic extremism before Benghazi consulate attack - Washington Times

To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com

ISRAEL: Conscientious objector Moriel Rothman sentenced to 10 days' imprisonment

Israeli conscientious objector Moriel Rothman, 23 year old, from Jerusalem, arrived in the morning of Wednesday, 24 October 2012, to the Induction Base in Jerusalem, where he declared his refusal to serve in the Israeli Army as it is an occupying force. He was sentenced to 10 days of imprisonment for his refusal.

In his refusal declaration Moriel Rothman wrote:

By Debra Sweet

I was listening to the "foreign policy debate" while reading blogs and tweeting. Among people I follow there was a lot of interest in whether the drone war would come up. It was brought up by Mitt Romney, approvingly, and then not spoken to by Obama. People also hoped Guantanamo would come up; it didn't.

By Linn Washington, Jr.

Two police lieutenants face a similar criminal charge but one gets a slap on the wrist while the other is fired.

One of these two police supervisors is an officer with a distinguished record of exposing corruption and misconduct.

Guess which of those two veteran police officers received the harsher punishment?

By David Swanson

In April I had a chat with Congressional candidate John Douglass who had just about wrapped up his party's nomination for Congress here in Virginia's Fifth District.  Douglass is a retired Brigadier General, a former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and a former deputy U.S. military representative to the NATO Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium.  He spent years buying weapons for the military and then years selling weapons to the military as CEO of Aerospace Industries Association.  In Congress he would be back on the buying side of the revolving door of death dealing.

1b Waterlow Road, London N19 5NJ

Newsletter 1258 25 October 2012
www.stopwar.org.uk | office@stopwar.org.uk | 020 7561 9311
twitter.com/STWuk | facebook.com/stopthewarcoalition
****************************
1) Confronting War Today - an international conference
Ten years after the biggest demonstrations in history in February 2003, this conference will discuss and plan opposition to continuing and further wars. As millions around the world predicted, the war on terror has caused catastrophe from Afghanistan and Pakistan through Iraq and the Middle East to Libya, Somalia and beyond. The Conference will bring together leading activists and commentators to analyse continuing Western aggression and how to confront it.
Tickets cost £15 / £8 concessions.
Book your ticket on the conference web site www.tenyearson.org.uk or telephone 02075619311 or email office@stopwar.org.uk

****************************
2) Why is David Cameron still sending British troops to kill and be killed in Afghanistan?

On the same day that David Cameron came out of Number 10 Downing Street to buy a poppy to remember the dead, the deaths of two more British soldier have been announced in Afghanistan. Nothing could better symbolise the cynicism of this government's attitude to the war in Afghanistan.

At the very same time as he is professing respect for dead soldiers, David Cameron is sending troops to kill and be killed in a war fully 80 per cent of the British public regard as being a total waste of life and resources.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH, 2012
3:00 - 5:00 PM

DEMILITARIZE OUR SCHOOLS - PEACE EDUCATION *and* COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT

St. Stephen's Church Rectory, 16th & Newton Sts., NW
(near Columbia Hts Metro stop, Green/Yellow lines;
S2, S4, H8, 42 bus lines)

- Don't you wish someone had talked to you or your family member before they joined the military and went into combat?
- Why does DC spend $2 million on ROTC programs and its mandatory enrollment?
- Why do military recruiters have unfettered access to our schools?
- What are your privacy rights as a student?

A panel discussion with educators, veterans and activists about the militarization of our schools, restoring student privacy and teaching peace, not war!

Moderated by Norberto Martinez & The Latino Media Collective

Speakers include:

- Pat Elder, National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy;
- Bill Galvin, Center on Conscience & War;
- John Judge, Committee for High School Options & Information on Careers, Education & Self-Improvement;
- Langston Tingling-Clemmons, DC Teacher.

Co-sponsors/Endorsers:
- Center on Conscience & War, http://www.centeronconscience.org;
- Committee for High School Options & Information on Careers, Education & Self-Improvement;
- The National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy http://studentprivacy.org;
- Washington Peace Center, http://washingtonpeacecenter.net;
- Veterans for Peace, IVAW,
- DC Metro Science for the People, http://ww.dcmetrosftp.org.

Refreshments will be provided!

Genocide in Bani Walid

by Stephen Lendman

Washington bears full responsibility for waging multiple wars on humanity. It planned, initiated and controls direct and proxy conflicts across North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

Bani Walid made headlines for three weeks. Genocide threatens its residents. Obama's dirty hands are all over this crime of war and against humanity. Media scoundrels ignore it. More on this below. 

Big Week for Justice Department Vigilantes

by Stephen Lendman

Call it three-bagger injustice. Three "bad guys" in one week include one wrongfully arrested, another forced to plead guilty though innocent, and a third convicted without having committed a crime.

Statement From A Resister - Leah-Lynn Plante from Because We Must on Vimeo.

Syria Declares Eid Cease-Fire Through Monday - voa

US urges Syria, rebels to respect ceasefire - NOW Lebanon

Turkey's border towns want Syria truce - Al Jazeera English

----------------------------------------------------------------

Russia suggests U.S. coordinating arms supplies to Syria rebels, State Department spokeswoman says the latest Russian suggestion is "ludicrous" - Reuters

The Qatar Conundrum: The Emirate That Arms Syria’s Rebels Also Embraces Hamas - TIME.com

VIDEO: FSA scored some new toys: RPG-26 and RPG-27 - LiveLeak.com

VIDEO: Lebanese Politician: Thousands of Missiles Will Rain Down on Turkey If It Intervenes in Syria - YouTube

Iraqi Shiites brace for violence amid Syria fears - AP

Russia, Peru and Ecuador join voices on Syria - Voice of Russia

Any military intervention in the Middle East to result in global chaos: Brzezinski - Voice of Russia

----------------------------------------------------------------

The Orthodox priest kidnapped in Damascus found dead, "His body was horribly tortured and his eyes gouged out" - Fides Service

Pastor and Family Executed in Syria - Christian News

Syria Crisis: Foreign Fighters Worry And Boost Syrian Rebels - ap

Syria crisis: Discord grows between Islamist and secular rebels - BBC

VIDEO: Syrian rebels destroying cannabis and marijuana - LiveLeak.com

Militants Assault the Residents in al-Ashrafia area of Aleppo - Friends of Syria

Syria and the Myth of the Peaceful Start of the Protests - SyriaNews

To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com

By Robert C. Koehler

“I have no secret plan for peace. I have a public plan.”

I listen to these words with fresh awe, 40 years later. They pierce the soul. Once upon a time, presidential politics was this open, this responsive to moral concerns. The speaker, of course, was George McGovern. The words, delivered during the Democratic National Convention in 1972 — and the campaign that followed — represent the political high-water mark of the social change movements of the 1960s.

The United Nations is to set up a dedicated investigations unit in Geneva to examine the legality of drone attacks in cases where civilians are killed in so-called ‘targeted’ counter-terrorism operations.

The announcement was made by Ben Emmerson QC, a UN special rapporteur, in a speech to Harvard law school in which he condemned secret rendition and waterboarding as crimes under international law.

His forthright comments, directed at both US presidential candidates, will be seen as an explicit challenge to the prevailing US ideology of the global war on terror.

Earlier this summer, Emmerson, who monitors counter-terrorism for the UN, called for effective investigations into drone attacks. Some US drone strikes in Pakistan – where those helping victims of earlier attacks or attending funerals were killed – may amount to war crimes, Emmerson warned.

By Dave Lindorff

A new study by researchers at the University of Illinois in Urbana, showing that young children who are fearful in childhood are likely to be conservative when they grow up got me to thinking.