"Astonishingly Disturbing" - Endless War Across the Globe

[Jan Klimkowski]

My emphasis in bold:

Obama pressured Maliki for years to permit up to 30,000 U.S. troops in Iraq after the "combat troops" pulled out. In mid-October 2011 the Iraqi leader finally accepted 3,000 to 5,000 troops in a training-only capacity. The Iraqis then insisted that they remain largely confined to their bases, and refused Washington's demand to grant legal immunity to the soldiers when they entered the larger society.
That was the deal-breaker. Washington routinely demands legal exemption for its foreign legions as a matter of imperial hubris, and would not compromise. The day after the deal collapsed, Obama issued a public statement intended to completely conceal his failure. "Today," he said, "I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year."
Several important issues in the Washington-Kabul post-2014 negotiations seem to have been decided, including a U.S. payment of at least $10 billion a year to train and pay for some 400,000 Afghan soldiers and police officers. Among the remaining issues are two of considerable importance troop strength and legal immunity for American personal (both for soldiers and tens of thousands of U.S. "contractors" who will remain in the country).
Reports circulated in the last few months that between 3,000 and 20,000 U.S. troops, mainly Special Forces, CIA contingents, drone operators and contractors of various kinds, will remain after 2014. The main air cover is expected to come from Navy aircraft carriers probably stationed in the Arabian Sea or Indian Ocean. Drones are expected to play a major role in battle as well as surveillance. Last year there were some 400 drone attacks in Afghanistan and that number is expected to continue increasing.

This is absolutely outrageous.

Historically, diplomats - aka spies - have had "immunity": the right to commit crimes and then be spirited out of the country in which they commited the crime rather than face criminal justice.

That is bad enough.

For the US to insist on extending such immunity, formally, to troops, contractors and black ops off the books squads engaged in sabotage and assassination missions demonstrates that America truly is a rogue state, which believes that its nationals are above the rule of law.

Of course the US also refuses to recognise the International Criminal Court responsible for trying war crimes and crimes against humanity.

[Magda Hassan]

"Do What Thou Wilt" in action by the state. The rest of us are hog tied to many meaningless rules and regulations and still expected to have respect for law and order.

[Adele Edisen]

Brzezinski Confirms US Can Organize Attacks in Its Own Territory

With the exception of Washington Note and Financial Times, the mainstream media decided not to report Zbigniew Brzezinski's comments that shatter the United Stator ruling class. Auditioned on February 1st, 2007 by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the former National Security Adviser read a statement the terms of which had been carefully chosen.

He indicated that : " a plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran involves Iraqi failure to meet the benchmarks, followed by accusations of Iranian responsibility for the failure, then by some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran, culminating in a defensive' US military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan".

As you must have noticed: Mr Brzezinski evoked the Bush administration plausible organization of an attack in the United States, and the possibility of holding Iran wrongly responsible for it.

In Washington the analysts hesitate between two interpretations of this statement. For certain officials, the former National Security Adviser tried to beat the neoconservatives to it and to cast doubt in advance on any circumstance which would lead to the war. For others, Mr Brzezinski wanted, in addition, to suggest that in case of collision with the war partisans, he could reopen the September 11th file. In any case, Thierry Meyssan's hypothesis - According to which the September 11th attacks would have been perpetrated by a Military-Industrial Complex faction to provoke the Afghanistan and Iraq wars - Leaves suddenly the taboo domain to be discussed publicly by Washington elites.

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The articles on Voltaire Network may be freely reproduced provided the source is cited, their integrity is respected and they are not used for commercial purposes (license CC BY-NC-ND).

Source : "Brzezinski confirms U.S. can organise attacks in own territory ", Voltaire Network, 20 February 2007, http://www.voltairenet.org/article145515.html

Adele (So that's how its done)

[Peter Lemkin]

Apparently, the entire World is considered 'our territory' by the ruling thugs. The 'Monroe Doctrine' in metastasis.

[David Guyatt]

"Do What Thou Wilt" in action by the state. The rest of us are hog tied to many meaningless rules and regulations and still expected to have respect for law and order.

I wonder if this requirement will - or already does - apply to plain vanilla US citizens elsewhere in the world?

But it does, of course, throw open the doors to unrestrained action by US soldiers and contractors (and others?) in such areas as rape, murder, pillage, drug-running, money laundering, the traffic in body parts and sex slaves, theft of property and intellectual rights and many other openly illegalalities.

It is the sort of get out of jail card that trans-national organized crime families would have wet dreams about.

Come to think of it....

It's now Rome on the Potomac twinned with The Sopranos and The Borgias

[Jan Klimkowski]

But it does, of course, throw open the doors to unrestrained action by US soldiers and contractors (and others?) in such areas as rape, murder, pillage, drug-running, money laundering, the traffic in body parts and sex slaves, theft of property and intellectual rights and many other openly illegalalities.

It is the sort of get out of jail card that trans-national organized crime families would have wet dreams about.

Come to think of it....

It's now Rome on the Potomac twinned with The Sopranos and The Borgias

Poppy Bush Heaven

WASP Delight

Oligarch Onanism

Royal Romps

Farben Fetish

They're fucking with us.....

[Adele Edisen]

Thursday, 23 May 2013 03:24 PM

Obama's Speech Today

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/obama-d...de=139AA-1

President Barack Obama outlined plans on Thursday to limit the use of U.S. drone strikes against extremists abroad and took steps aimed at breaking a deadlock on closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison.
In a major foreign policy speech after two weeks of fending off domestic scandals, Obama limited the scope of what his predecessor, George W. Bush, had called a global war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"Our nation is still threatened by terrorists," Obama said at Washington's National Defense University. "We must recognize however, that the threat has shifted and evolved from the one that came to our shores on 9/11."

Faced with criticism about the morality of using unmanned aerial vehicles to wage war in distant lands, Obama said the United States will only use drone strikes when a threat is imminent, a nuanced change from the previous policy of launching strikes against a significant threat.

"To say a military tactic is legal, or even effective, is not to say it is wise or moral in every instance," Obama said.

Under a new presidential guidance signed on Wednesday, Obama said the Defense Department will take the lead in launching drones, as opposed to the current practice of the CIA taking charge.

Any drone strike will only be launched when a terrorism suspect cannot be captured. The United States will respect state sovereignty and will limit strikes to al Qaida or associated targets, he said.

"And before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured - the highest standard we can set," said Obama.

The use by the United States of armed drone aircraft to attack extremists has increased tensions with countries such as Pakistan and drawn criticism from human rights activists. Obama acted in line with a promise to be more open about the issue.



GREATER SCRUTINY

Obama has faced pressure from both supporters and opponents to allow greater scrutiny of the secretive decision-making process guiding drone use. He said earlier this year he wanted to be more open about the issue.

His policy shift came after the Obama administration acknowledged on Wednesday that four Americans abroad had been killed in drone strikes since 2009 in counter-terrorism operations in Yemen and Pakistan, including militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

Obama defended those operations, saying when a U.S. citizen goes abroad to wage war against the United States, his citizenship should not be a shield.

But in recognition of a debate within Congress about whether strikes could be launched within the United States, Obama said it would not be constitutional to do so.

Faced with congressional opposition, Obama has been frustrated by his inability to carry out a 2008 campaign pledge to close the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A hunger strike by 103 of the 166 detainees has put pressure on him to take action.

"There is no justification beyond politics for Congress to prevent us from closing a facility that should never have been opened," Obama said.

While he cannot close it on his own, he did announce some steps aimed at getting some prisoners out. He lifted a moratorium on detainee transfers to Yemen out of respect for that country's reforming government.

He called on Congress to lift restrictions on the transfer of terrorism suspects from Guantanamo and directed the Defense Department to identify a site to hold military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees.

"Where appropriate, we will bring terrorists to justice in our courts and military justice system," he said.

He said he would pick a senior U.S. envoy to handle detainee transfers, a position that has vacant since January.

The speech offered Obama a chance to change the subject after dealing with controversies about his handling of attacks in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans were killed, Internal Revenue Service scrutiny of conservative groups, and government targeting of journalists in leak probes.

© 2013 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved

[Peter Lemkin]

I'll 'see it, when I believe it'. He said all that during his first election campaign too! He's glib and knows what the People want..but does what the Oligarchy tell him to do....the rest is just rhetoric to calm the masses, sadly. Unknown is what is in his own heart...but I fear not what would amount to 'hope or change' - not real hope, nor real change......only false hope and spare change. :banghead:

[Magda Hassan]

Yes, Obama's been all talk and no action. He's never walked the talk. I'll believe it when I see it too.

[David Guyatt]

My guess is that drones will, sooner or later, be used domestically.

Obama was always bought and paid for. That's why Zgigniew Brzezinski was involved in the background in his original election campaign.