Western Crimes and Sh*tholes

Topic: Western Crimes and Sh*tholes…

By: Stewart Brennan

The following post is in reply to the bedlam surrounding a comment that Donald Trump allegedly made when speaking to law makers regarding immigration reform saying, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” a reference to immigrants coming to the USA from Haiti, El Salvador, and several African nations. 

I don’t know if Donald Trump spoke these words or not but if he did, what is all the hysteria about?…because as I see it, all the countries in question were destroyed and impoverished by western nations who were supported by pretty much the same people pointing their fingers at Donald Trump...the same people who are destroying nations all over the world today...

Let’s take a brief look at some of the gaping wounds on this planet…

There is a massive atrocity being committed on the people of Yemen by Saudi Arabia and your western government supports the Saudi's while also selling them the weapons to continue their war crimes…and that is while the western mainstream media stays absolutely silent about it. Tens of thousands have died in Yemen where the whole country, 20 million people, are at risk of dying by disease and starvation…20 MILLION PEOPLE!

There are massive atrocities being committed in Palestine by Israel as they brutalize the people in their war and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, and your western government supports the Israeli belligerence…of course, the western mainstream media also supports these Israeli crimes because they do NOT report them or report the truth…but ohhh, don’t say anything against Israel or you will be labeled an anti-semite… 

I do NOT support these monstrous Israeli crimes nor will I be silent when they are committed. However, our western governments and mainstream media do, so maybe we should call them anti-human, or racist sh*tholes for the crimes they support.

There is a massive atrocity ongoing in Libya and your western governments are directly responsible for it…while the western mainstream media ignores the facts and supports the belligerent war crimes committed by western governments…colonial oppression has returned to Africa through western government support of terrorism and military occupation. Millions of refugees are flooding into Europe, while thousands are dying on the way and your western governments are responsible for all of it…

Wherever the US and its western puppet governments go, to supposedly bring freedom and democracy, hardship turmoil and your worst nightmares descend on the people living there…that is what your mainstream media supports, that is what Facebook supports when it practices censorship and that is what programmed people in the west support by their apathy of believing what they are told instead of investigating for themselves…

There has been a massive atrocity committed in Syria by terrorists that the western governments openly support. However, Russia stepped in to stop the madness and confronted the western supported terrorists and their war crimes. For this reason, western governments and their mainstream media demonize the Russians…the entire Syrian nation and its 23 million people were affected by western backed terrorism, leading to massive death, injuries and homelessness with an explosion of refugees…and your western governments are responsible for it…

I didn’t bring up Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Mali, Congo, Venezuela, or many other nations that our western governments are busy destroying because there's just way too many for me to keep track of anymore.

People in the west are slowly beginning to wake up but they still show signs of mainstream TV programming and the American illusion…I mean getting angry about Donald Trump calling Haiti and several African Countries shitholes is one thing but it pales in comparison to reality which is that our western governments are turning those countries into unlivable places (the very definition of an unlivable place is a sh*thole)...the American government turns perfectly functioning countries into rubble and they do it in the American peoples name! 

It’s time for everyone to stand up against the crimes that our western governments are committing all over the world!! The issue is not about racism, it’s about the reality that the US and other OECD nations are committing genocide throughout the world!

Getting angry at the words of Donald Trump plays right into the US deep state plans of deflecting the reality of our governments responsibility and criminal actions on nations around the World. Maybe it's time to stop our western governments from turning the world into a sh*thole!!

…So, where is the compassion for the people in the countries around the world who are being attacked by the western governments? The people in Haiti, El Salvador and the African nations are being oppressed by economic warfare, they are being crushed by western Imperial and colonial nations just as other countries around the world. 

Western governments are literally turning the World into an unlivable sh*thole in your name...the issue is not about racism but about the genocide that the USA is spearheading against the people of the world because those nations do not submit or bend to the criminal economic policy or economic interests of the west…

As I mentioned, some people are waking up to the crimes of their governments, this is why online censorship is now being put into place quickly, because the truth is surfacing on the Internet where mainstream media and government lies are beginning not to work…government and corporate censorship will certainly try to close down any and all differing opinion but will you let them?…take a look around your own country and tell me what you see? Is your country moving towards a perfect society or is your country moving towards economic disaster that resembles a “sh*thole”?

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A Poem by “The Activist Poet” in reflection called “Upheaval”

Upheaval

Perceptions in the world have changed,

Imprisoned minds unblocked,

eyes are quite wide open,

no longer closed or shocked.

September brought the earthquake,

October brought the war,

November brought insanity,

by December we were poor.

The global coup came creeping,

every nation on the block,

the twists n’ plots so furious,

economies held, grid locked.

The world’s been set on fire,

arsonists are in charge,

raging fires burn our homes,

insanity by and large.

Demons run the country,

more are in the wings,

trained to spawn the chaos,

and the turmoil that it brings.

Heaven help our children,

their futures not so clear,

and so the world keeps drifting,

in panic and in fear.

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 About this Expression:

I’m appalled and outraged by all the violence, greed and destruction that the US establishment has imposed upon the people of the World…I simply cannot accept it, nor can I live with the reality of it, therefore I write to express my disgust of it...

Link to Poem – Upheaval 

http://sfbrennanart.blogspot.ca/2016/05/upheaval.html

Story LINKS:

Trump asks why so many immigrants come to US from ‘s***hole countries’

Haiti govt summons US official to explain Trump’s ‘s***hole’ remark

Trump’s s***hole comment encapsulates America’s perpetually racist foreign policy

'No other word but racist': UNHR spokesman slams Trump’s reported remarks on's***hole countries'

‘S***hole’projected in huge letters onto Trump hotel (VIDEOS, PHOTOS)

American Killers and their Killer Friends

 

A Syrian insurgent fires shots at a helicopter during clashes with the Syrian Army force in the northern province of Idlib, June 26, 2012.

By: Rodney Shakespeare

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/03/270168/american-killers-and-their-killer-friends/

In 1968 around five hundred unarmed civilians were massacred by American soldiers at My Lai (Son My), Vietnam. Most of the victims were women, children, infants, and the elderly.

Many of the women were raped, or gang-raped and their bodies mutilated. Only one soldier was found guilty and he then served a mere three and a half years under house arrest (i.e., he was sentenced to three and a half years of lounging on a sofa, drinking Coca Cola, eating pizzas and watching television).

In 1988, Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by a missile from the American ship USS Vincennes. All two hundred and ninety on board including sixty six children and sixteen crew members were killed. The United States has never admitted responsibility, nor apologized.

In 2007, leaked videos revealed that American helicopters were playing lets-shoot-’em video games whose object is to machine gun as many people as possible in the shortest possible time. Posted on YouTube, the thirty nine minute cockpit video shows three incidents, in which people were targeted as they walked along Baghdad streets, sat in a van or went into a building, unaware that Apache gunships were aiming to destroy them.

Because the dead included two Iraqi journalists working for Reuters TV, the news agency attempted to request the video footage under the Freedom of Information Act. It did not succeed. The footage was eventually acquired from an undisclosed source in 2009 by the website Wikileaks which released the footage in 2010, under the name ‘collateral murder’.

Moreover, as ‘collateral’ is being mentioned, it should be remembered that the Americans snigger and titter when reference is made to ‘collateral damage’. By ‘collateral damage’ they mean the hundreds of civilians now being killed, in various countries, by the drones which blast them apart with never a word of apology let alone compensation for the killing of innocents. These are war crimes of the worst sort. Furthermore, American drone policy is being extended to new countries almost every day.

And now a video, if confirmed as genuine, shows Syrian insurgents beating government soldiers before spraying them with bullets. However, this latest massacre is only the latest in a string of summary executions throughout Syria and the reason is that the insurgents, supported by the Americans, the Saudis, the Qataris and the Turks, are a bunch of throat-slitters, thugs and gangsters.

Of course, the USA, once again exposed as connected to war crimes, is throwing up its hands in horror and claiming that the massacre must have been done by the irresponsible few. We are innocent, they say.

Oh no they’re not. The USA is hand in glove with these killers and its only complaint is when, like My Lai in 1968, like with Flight 655 in 1978, like those videos from 2007 in Iraq, clear evidence reveals that a war crime has been committed. The USA trains, finances and arms these gruesome killers, and, when it cannot do so directly, does so through its allies such as Turkey or Saudi Arabia. These war crimes go on because the USA has embarked upon a wholesale war against Islam in which anything is allowed.

They started the war in September 2001 (just think of Tower Number Seven, not touched by an airplane, suddenly imploding into dust....)

Of course, just in case it gets caught out once too often in war crimes, the USA has been careful to ensure that it is excluded from the aegis of the International Criminal Court. Furthermore, in the United Nations Security Council the USA has a veto which is always sufficient to ensure that the Council does not put the USA up before the ICC.

However, world public opinion is now becoming fully informed that, like Zionist Israel, the USA does not care if it commits war crimes. Nor does it care if war crimes are committed on its behalf. It only cares if a war crime is exposed.

That is why Bradley Manning, a young American soldier is being tortured in a military prison, when he has not yet been tried and convicted and why the USA, together with its subservient ally, the UK, is intent on getting its hands on Julian Assange for allegedly revealing those videos to world opinion. If he did it, Assange was only doing what journalists always do if they can i.e., reveal the crimes of governments.

However, the USA, suffused with its sense of arrogant exceptionalism (which means that the USA believes it can torture and kill indiscriminately while receiving plaudits from the rest of the world) is not going to stop committing war crimes. It is only going to try to prevent exposure by, for example, ensuring that alternative radio and television media such as Press TV are shut down.

Nor is the USA going to stop its allies from committing war crimes or straightforward ordinary crimes. As long as a regime agrees to give overt or covert support to the ever-expanding Zionist entity then, in the USA’s eyes, it cannot possibly be complicit in anything which is wrong. Which is why Israel itself commits war crimes, and Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, to take but a few, daily commit civilian crimes.

So next time you hear hectoring Hilary Clinton lecturing somebody on freedom and democracy just remember that, behind the rhetoric, there lies an evil intent to commit war crimes or get somebody else to do them.

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About: Rodney Shakespeare

A Visiting Professor of Binary Economics at Trisakti University, Jakarta, Indonesia, Rodney Shakespeare is a Cambridge MA, a qualified UK Barrister, a co-founder of the Global Justice Movement http://www.globaljusticemovement.net, a member of the Christian Council for Monetary Justice. His main website is http://www.binaryeconomics.net. Shakespeare is also Chair of the Committee Against Torture in Bahrain. More articles by Rodney Shakespeare

 

 

Siege of Bani Walid: Foreign fighters, phosphorus bombs and nerve gas – RT sources

Source: Russia Today

The besieged Libyan city of Bani Walid has been plunged into chaos. RT sources say that the former Gaddafi regime stronghold is under attack by militias bolstered by foreign mercenaries, and they used banned weapons like white phosphorous.

­The sources denied reports of the last few days that Bani Walid was retaken by the Libyan government. Residents said that militia forces have continued their assault, while preventing the refugees who fled from reentering the city.

A man who claimed his relatives are trapped inside the besieged city spoke with RT, saying, “There is no food; there is nothing to support the life of people. And the militia does not allow anyone to come back to their homes.”

“They are demolishing homes with machinery and tanks. There is no communication or internet so people are not able to connect with each other,” the source said. He is currently in Egypt, and refuses to reveal his identity over fears of personal safety.

He believes the real reason for the inoperable communications is that many people have been killed inside Bani Walid by the forces besieging the city and now they are trying to prevent information about the killings to be leaked outside.

The militia attackers have claimed they are battling ‘pro-Gaddafi’ forces, but the source slammed that motive as a “lie and a dirty game.”

“They use foreign snipers, I think from Qatar or Turkey, with Qatar covering all the costs,” he said. He claimed that a ship with weapons and other equipment recently docked in the port city of Misrata, where the assault on Bani Walid is allegedly being directed.

“There is no government in Libya. Groups of militia control everything. They don’t care about Libya, they don’t care about the nation,” he said, adding allegations that the majority of militia fighters have dual citizenship or passports from other countries.

“We ask the envoy [Special Representative] of the Secretary-General of the United Nations [for Libya] Mr. Tarik Mitri – where is he now?” he said. “Where is the United Nations? Where is the EU? Where is the Human Rights Watch? We ask for an intervention now as soon as possible – please!”

In an October 23 UN session, the US blocked a statement on the violence in Bani Walid drafted by Russia, which condemned the ongoing conflict in the city and calling for a peaceful resolution.

RT Photo from Bani Walid. RT source. The photo could not be independently verified.

Witnesses claim militia used chemical weapons in Bani Walid

“I can confirm that pro-government militias used internationally prohibited weapons. They used phosphorus bombs and nerve gas. We have documented all this in videos, we recorded the missiles they used and the white phosphorus raining down from these missiles,” Bani Walid-based activist and lawyer Afaf Yusef told RT.

“Many people died without being wounded or shot, they died as a result of gases. The whole world needs to see who they are targeting. Are they really Gaddafi's men? Are the children, women and old men killed – Gaddafi's men?” Yusef said.

The forces attacking Bani Walid have been ordered to use “all means necessary” in their assault on the city, RT’s Paula Slier reported.

“To all parasites and leaches, a message to all of them across Libya, wherever they are: Whoever you are, however strong you are, and whoever your back is – the revolution should win,” a militant said in the TV report

RT Photo from Bani Walid. RT source. The photo could not be independently verified.

‘Militias using planes and chemical weapons in Bani Walid’

­People inside Bani Walid are saying that chemical weapons and airplanes were used in the attack on the town, which has left houses burnt and looted as residents fled the city, Libyan activist Ali Altakasih told RT.

“I was sent a report that was issued by the local hospital in Bani Walid in which they also claim that the militia had used chemical weapons,”he said, adding that he believes the militias have “no principles” and the government has no control over them so they will use whatever weapons they have at their disposal without hesitation.

“They also used planes to bomb the city and there was a report yesterday showing a plane over Bani Walid,” he said. “I was told by cousins and friends that planes were also used to bomb the city, chemical weapons were also used on Bani Walid, killing people inside the city.”

RT was unable to verify these claims by Ali Altakasih, spokesman for the Werfallah tribe which supported Gaddafi, of whether chemical weapons have been used or not. But he insists that if a fact-finding mission is sent to Bani Walid it would easily gather evidence and proof of unconventional weapons being used against civilians.

As the West is turning its back on Libyans and letting militias do whatever they want, Altakasih is urging the international community – particularly Russia and China – to interfere to stop these militias.

“I think the West is turning their back on Libyans and letting these militias do whatever they want to the Libyans,” he said. “They either kill them or torture them, no-one in the West is even criticizing these militias, so Libya is left alone at the moment. We urge Russia and we urge China and we urge the rest of the world to interfere and stop these militias because what they did so far is only kill civilians, many civilians, children were killed, and houses are being burnt.”

The people who are trying to return to the city are being stopped by militias, Altakasih confirmed, adding that there is still communication inside the city which makes it hard to verify what is happening on the ground. The images coming from the city now are very gloomy with people afraid to leave their homes and militias burning and looting houses.

“Any house that looks of great importance to the militias is either burnt or robbed,” Altakasih said. “There are people who are trapped inside the city who cannot leave the city, either for fear of the militia or fear of leaving their belongings inside the city.”

The conflict in Bani Walid is not really a political one but rather tribal as Misrata militias are trying to take control of the whole of Libya and exterminate any opposition, especially inside the former Gaddafi stronghold.

“To be honest this conflict is tribal in nature because the militia is mainly from Misrata supported by other militias from other cities nearby Misrata, because of the conflict that took place between two tribes 92 years ago,” Altakasih explained. “In this conflict one of the Misrata tribes or leaders was killed when he attacked Bani Walid.”

Looming humanitarian catastrophe in Bani Walid

The humanitarian situation outside Bani Walid is reportedly nearly as dire as that within the besieged city. Those who managed to flee the violence now find themselves stranded on the desert roads outside the city.

Thousands of Bani Walid residents have reportedly tried to reenter the city, but were stopped at makeshift militia checkpoints composed of pickup trucks armed with mounted machine-guns.

“Look at the people over there, they got a gun and they’re shooting at people with it,” a Bani Walid resident said, pointing in the direction of a checkpoint. He claimed that those who fled the city had been forced to stay in the desert for more than a week.

“Where is the government?” he said

Photo from Bani Walid. RT source. The photo could not be independently verified

Photo from Bani Walid. RT source. The photo could not be independently verified.

Obama fights ban on indefinite detention of Americans

(AFP Photo / Paul J. Richards)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/usa/news/obama-indefinite-detention-forrest-070/

The White House has filed an appeal in hopes of reversing a federal judge’s ruling that bans the indefinite military detention of Americans because attorneys for the president say they are justified to imprison alleged terrorists without charge.

Manhattan federal court Judge Katherine Forrest ruled in May that the indefinite detention provisions signed into law late last year by US President Barack Obama failed to “pass constitutional muster” and ordered a temporary injunction to keep the military from locking up any person, American or other, over allegations of terrorist ties. On Monday, however, federal prosecutors representing President Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta filed a claim with the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in hopes of eliminating that ban.

The plaintiffs "cannot point to a single example of the military's detaining anyone for engaging in conduct even remotely similar to the type of expressive activities they allege could lead to detention," Obama’s attorneys insist. With that, the White House is arguing that as long as the indefinite detention law hasn’t be enforced yet, there is no reason for a judge to invalidate it.

Reuters reports this week that the government believes they are justified to have the authorization to lock alleged belligerents up indefinitely because cases involving militants directly aligned against the good of the US government warrants such punishment. Separate from Judge Forrest’s injunction, nine states have attempted to, at least in part, remove themselves from the indefinite detention provisions of included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, or NDAA.

In section 1021 of the NDAA, the president’s authority to hold a terrorism suspect “without trial, until the end of the hostilities” is reaffirmed by Congress. Despite an accompanying signing statement voicing his opposition to that provision, President Obama quietly inked his name to the NDAA on December 31, 2011. In May, however, a group of plaintiffs including notable journalists and civil liberty proponents challenged section 1021 in court, leading to Just Forrest to find it unconstitutional one month later.

"There is a strong public interest in protecting rights guaranteed by the First Amendment," Forrest wrote in her 68-page ruling. "There is also a strong public interest in ensuring that due process rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment are protected by ensuring that ordinary citizens are able to understand the scope of conduct that could subject them to indefinite military detention."

At the time Just Forrest made her injunction, attorney Carl Mayer told RT on behalf of the plaintiffs that, although he expected the White House to appeal, “It may not be in their best interest.”

“[T]here are so many people from all sides of the political spectrum opposed to this law that they ought to just say, 'We're not going to appeal,’” Mayer said. "The NDAA cannot be used to pick up Americans in a proverbial black van or in any other way that the administration might decide to try to get people into the military justice system. It means that the government is foreclosed now from engaging in this type of action against the civil liberties of Americans."

The original plaintiffs, who include Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Hedges, have asked Just Forrest to make her injunction permanent. Oral arguments in the case are expected to begin this week.

US justifies terrorism against Syria: Russia

Members of the terrorist Free Syrian Army (File Photo)

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/07/25/252691/us-justifying-terror-in-syria-russia/

Russian foreign minister says Washington is justifying terrorism against the Syrian government by failing to condemn atrocities committed by the armed groups fighting against Damascus.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday criticized the US for supporting armed groups in Syria and its failure to condemn the July 18 terrorist bomb attack in the Syrian capital that killed at least four high-profile security officials, including Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha and his deputy Assef Shawkat who is also President Assad's brother-in-law.
"This is quite an awful position, I cannot even find the words to make clear how we feel. This is directly justifying terrorism. How can this be understood?" Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.

The top Russian diplomat also criticized the US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice for arguing last week that the violence in Damascus meant the UN Security Council had to agree on a sanctions resolution against the Syrian government.

"In other words, to say it in plain Russian, this means 'we (the United States) will continue to support such terrorist acts for as long as the UN Security Council has not done what we want'," Lavrov said.

He also criticized a recent Arab League call for Assad's rapid resignation in return for a safe exit, accusing the bloc of offering 'conflicting solutions' to the Syrian issue.

Russia, along with China, has so far vetoed three UNSC resolutions against Syria and has repeatedly expressed opposition to outside meddling in the country's internal affairs.
Syria has been the scene of deadly unrest since mid-March, 2011 and many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing protesters. But Damascus blames ''outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups'' for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.

CIA relieved as US ends torture probes

A picture displaying a simulated CIA torture technique known as water-boarding

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/187005.html

The US Attorney General's latest decree for a criminal investigation into the death in detention of only two CIA captives has spared the US spy agency from further torture and abuse probes.

The US Justice Department announced on Thursday Attorney General Eric Holder's order for a probe into the deaths of two detainees interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which effectively terminates any future investigations into the agency's other state-sponsored torture deaths and abuses.

Holder's prosecution order will then throw out over 100 other inquiries into cases involving the abuse of detained suspected 'terrorists' by CIA operatives and contractors during years of military operations following September 11, 2001 incidents, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Justice Department has not revealed which cases will be probed, but US officials said they are the death of an Afghan, Gul Rahman, in 2002 at a prison known as the Salt Pit in Afghanistan, and that of an Iraqi, Manadel al-Jamadi, who was interrogated by three CIA officers at Abu Ghraib in 2003.

While Jamadi's body was placed on ice to preserve it for autopsy, American soldiers posed for photographs with the body- - including some in which they gave the thumbs-up sign - - provoking international outrage when the images surfaced in media.

The outgoing CIA director, Leon Panetta, who was just confirmed in the US Senate as the new defense secretary, hailed the Justice Department's decision to ignore further probes into the state-sponsored 'enhanced interrogation methods'. Panetta said in a statement that “on this, my last day as director, I welcome the news that the broader inquiries are behind us.”

“We are now finally about to close this chapter of our agency's history," he added.

Critics, however, have demanded that the Justice Department continue to look into torture methods applied in interrogating those in CIA custody.

US conducts targeted killings in Somalia

American Predator drone firing a Hellfire missile (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/186878.html

The US military is reportedly making use of remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicles in Somalia in order to conduct targeted killings in the Horn of Africa nation.

An unnamed senior US military official said on Wednesday that the United States carried out a drone attack in Somalia last week, The Washington Post reported.

The drone strike reportedly targeted two high-ranking members of al-Shabab group that allegedly had "direct ties" to 'anti-American cleric' Anwar Al Awlaki, who is on the CIA's list of 'suspected terrorists' and is reportedly hiding in Yemen.

In October 2009, al-Shabab fighters claimed they had shot down a US drone aircraft flying over Kismayo, a port town located some 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Last week's drone strike in Somalia makes the lawless state the sixth country where the US military has used drone aircraft to conduct lethal attacks.

The United States has now employed drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq and Yemen to launch aerial bomibings.

Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia remains one of the countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP) in the world.

According to an annual account by the Foreign Policy magazine, Somalia tops the most 'failed' states on the 'Failed States Index.'

An estimated 1.4 million Somalis are displaced within the country while another 680,000 live as refugees in neighboring countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The UNHCR reported in April that the number of Somali refugees arriving to neighboring countries during the first quarter of 2011 has more than doubled in comparison to the same period in 2010.

Senate confirms Petraeus as CIA chief

General David H. Petraeus

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/186997.html

The United States Senate has confirmed General David H. Petraeus as the new CIA director, a post left vacant after the agency's former chief was appointed as secretary of defense.

The unanimous vote for the new chief of the Central Intelligence Agency on Thursday was confirmed in a 94-0 vote by the Senators, AP reported.

Petraeus replaces Leon Panetta, whose appointment as the new Defense Secretary was confirmed by the Senate last week in a 100-0 vote. Panetta succeeds Robert Gates, who is set to retire.

Petraeus has been the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan since June 2010. Prior to his deployment to Afghanistan last summer, he had served as the commander of the Central Command.

The 37-year veteran of the US Army will retire from the army as a four-star general. He said he will leave behind his "military brain trust" of staff he has taken with him for the Iraq and Afghan campaigns.

Petraeus said he hoped by doing so that he would ease CIA fears that he "would try to turn the agency's unique culture into a military operation."

The army general will head the CIA at a time when the White House is relying heavily on the agency's covert operations "to target terrorists."

The White House unveiled a new national counter-terrorism strategy this week that signaled "a departure from invasions like those of Iraq and Afghanistan."

'US forces training for electronic war'

Some 20 US military aircraft are reportedly being used by the US training troops at an Iraq-based stronghold.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185980.html

The US military forces based in one of their largest bases in Iraq are reportedly taking part in exercises meant to prepare them for the launch of an electronic warfare.

The drills are underway in the Al-Bakr Air Base -- a former name for the US Joint Base Balad or Camp Anaconda -- which is located near the city of Balad in central Iraq, informed sources have told Press TV.

Some 20 warplanes, including F-15, F-16 and F-18 aircraft, are being used by the training troops at the stronghold, which used to be the largest Iraqi Air Force base.

The sources said the warfare is being simulated for the potential purpose of destroying Iran's radar and air defense systems.

The news comes amid the reported presence especially at night time of unmanned American reconnaissance aircraft on searching missions in Iran-Iraq border areas.

The US forces have also reportedly put up several telecommunication masts on the Iraqi soil near the city of Marivan in northwestern Iran for suspected espionage activities against the Islamic Republic.

Washington has been pressuring Baghdad to agree with the presence of some of America's 50,000-strong force in the war-wrecked country beyond 2011.

Under the US-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), Washington is mandated to withdraw its troops by December 31 this year.

Washington has also been trying to persuade the Iraqi authorities into agreeing to keep US military bases in the country.

Baghdad has opposed to an extended US military presence, but is awaiting the parliament's official opinion on the issue.

Scores killed in Baghdad market blasts

Bombings have been on the rise in Iraq since the beginning of the year

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185977.html

At least 21 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded when three explosions blew up in a market south of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

"Explosives loaded in three shopping carts killed 21 people and wounded 107 at the Shurt al-Raba market," AFP quoted an interior ministry official as saying on Thursday

The official added that the attack happened at 6:45 p.m. (15:45 GMT) when the area was crowded with shoppers.

Also on Thursday, an American contractor with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Iraq was killed and three civilians, including another US citizen, were wounded in a bomb attack in Baghdad.

Reports show that bombings have been on the rise in Iraq since the beginning of 2011 and violent incidents averaged more than 10 a day in May, up from four to five a day in January.

On Tuesday, 25 people were killed and 30 injured when two car bombs exploded outside the residence of a local governor in central Iraq.

At least seven Iraqis were injured in an attack on a French embassy convoy in Baghdad on Monday.

Local security forces and provincial government officials in Iraq have been the target of attacks in recent months as US troops prepare to withdraw from the country by the end of this year.

Over one million Iraqis have died since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to the California-based media research group, Project Censored.

Obama declares Afghan draw down plan

US President Barack Obama delivers a televised address from the East Room of the White House on June 22, 2011 in Washington, D.C.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185877.html

US President Barack Obama has announced a plan to withdraw US surge troops from Afghanistan, amid increasing pressure on him to end the war.

In a televised speech on Wednesday, he declared that starting from next month the US will begin to withdraw the troops.

By the end of the year 10,000 troops will have been withdrawn and until the summer of 2012, a further 23,000 are expected to have been withdrawn, he said.

The US has some 100,000 troops in Afghanistan and over 1,500 US troops have been killed since the start of the war. There is not yet an official number of total Afghan deaths due to the war.

"This is the beginning -- but not the end -- of our effort to wind down this war," Obama said, stressing that challenges still remains in the war-torn country, Reuters reported.

Additionally, he explained how, despite the death of the former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, his group remains dangerous.

Obama also made it clear that all parties in country must abide by the Afghan Constitution if peace is to succeed.

Afghan security officials had earlier stated that they are ready for a troop draw down.

Obama further announced that the US will host a NATO meeting in May 2012, where the next phase of the military operation in Afghanistan will be shaped.

The move comes as the US economy has been in a bleak situation in recent years.

“Over the last decade, we have spent a trillion dollars on war,” the US president said.

"We must invest in America's greatest resource - our people,” Obama stated.

He noted that the relocation of funds are intended to promote job creation and rebuild the country's infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke delivered another speech after a Fed meeting on Wednesday where he cut the US economic growth forecast for 2011 and 2012.

The US unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent, and as job creation has witnessed a slowdown, many have raised fears that another recession may be ahead.

'US is cause of instability in Iraq'

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185731.html

A member of Iraq's State of Law coalition says that the presence of US forces in Iraq has been the main source of instability in the country.

“The Americans are the cause of instability in Iraq,” Saad al-Mutallebi told Press TV on Tuesday.

He added, “The general public in Iraq expects the US forces to leave the country by December 31.”

“The government is obliged to obey the SOFA agreement,” al-Mutallebi said, adding, “The agreement cannot be altered in any way.”

Under the US-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), the US is mandated to withdraw its 50,000-strong force from Iraq by December 31, 2011.

The agreement also forced Washington to end its combat operations in Iraq in August 2010.

However, there have been numerous reports of US troops' involvement in military operations in Iraq.

Al-Mutallebi referred to the “internal security problem” and the “terrorist problem” as the major setbacks for the country and called for the expansion of the capabilities of Iraq's security and intelligence forces.

He said that Iraq has an “excellent relationship” with all its neighboring countries and denounced the US plot to convince Baghdad that they pose threats to Iraq's stability.

US officials are now pressing Baghdad to allow an extension of the US military presence.

However, according to Iraqi officials, local security forces are now completely capable of maintaining stability in the country.

US to unveil Afghanistan troops pullout

US President Barack Obama is due to announce plans on US troops drawdown from war-hit Afghanistan।

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185749.html

US President Barack Obama is set to unveil his administration's plans for American troops' withdrawal from war-torn Afghanistan during an upcoming speech.

In a planned televised speech on Wednesday, Obama is expected to elaborate on the details of his plans, which all deal specifically with the 30,000 surge troops dispatched to Afghanistan last year, the Associated Press reported.

The US president is reportedly mulling over a phased withdrawal as his first option that would bring home about 5,000 troops over the summer and another 5,000 by the end of 2011. The remainder would stay in the war-ravaged Asian country until late 2012.

Obama's second option is withdrawing 15,000 troops in 2011 and his third option is reportedly aimed at setting an endpoint, requiring the 30,000 surge troops to be brought home by December 2012. The pace of troop withdrawal in the third option will be decided by US commanders.

In December 2009, Obama announced a surge of 30,000 troops in an effort to defeat al-Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan or in neighboring Pakistan. The White House later announced that a sizeable contingent of combat troops would remain in Afghanistan until at least 2014.

Today, battle-weary Americans are urging the Obama administration to put an end to Afghanistan war and lawmakers have also joined the fray.

Obama's civilian advisors have recommended that if the US president wants to be re-elected next year, he should demonstrate a robust withdrawal. However, Top US commander David Petraeus has already indicated that it would be a tactical mistake to reduce US troops on the ground in July.

The United Stated waged a war on Afghanistan in 2001 under the excuse of capturing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was allegedly killed by American forces after ten years in Pakistan.

Army of widows, orphans trail US war

Iraqi women march with a sign 'No to occupation' in the capital Baghdad's suburb of Sadr City on May 26, 2011.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185606.html

Iraqi government sources have released shocking official figures, pointing to repercussions of the US-led military occupation of the country.

The Arab Times website published the statistics produced in 2008 by credible official sources in Iraq on the invasion that began in 2003.

Figures publicized by Iraq's Ministry of Women's Affairs showed that the US-led military operations had left one million widows.

According to the report, other official estimates point to a whopping 2,500,000 Iraqi fatalities as the result of the invasion, in addition to four million children that were left orphaned by the war.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry has also released figures pointing to 800,000 individuals that had gone missing in the country by January 2008.

American military forces led the invasion of Iraq under the pretext that the country's former dictator Saddam Hussein was stockpiling various types of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

However, no such weapons ever turned up in the oil-rich country. Furthermore, it was later revealed that American and British leaders, who vigorously pushed military action against Iraq while insisting on their intelligence on the existence of Iraqi WMDs, in fact knew that there were no such arms stored in the country.

The 50,000-strong American military force that still remaining in Iraq are due to entirely withdraw out of the country by the end of 2011 in line with a bilateral agreement.

Top US officials, however, have intensified their campaign to further extend the military presence in the oil-rich country.

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates visited Iraq earlier in the year to plead for an extended deployment of American forces beyond the deadline.

Moreover, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen has also asserted that Washington would "keep some American troops in the country” at what he claimed as 'Baghdad's request.'

This is while a number of senior Iraqi authorities and community leaders have insisted on the total pullout of US forces by the previously agreed timeline.

US approves $547bn military budget

The US has spent over USD 1 trillion on war since 2001.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185412.html

The Armed Services Committee of the US Senate has increased the Pentagon's 2012 budget by USD15 billion in the face of calls for federal spending reductions.

The amount represents a USD 6 billion panel cut from the Pentagon base request of USD 553 billion, according to a summary released by the panel on Friday.

Despite the USD 6 billion spending cut the legislation faced widespread criticism as the country continues to tackle severe economic hardships.

“Unfortunately, the committee chose to authorize millions of dollars in unnecessary and unrequested pork-barrel projects, and rejected my efforts to stop the out-of-control cost overruns of the F-35 program,” Senator John McCain was quoted by The Hill as saying.

The soaring military spending comes while the Obama administration has had to cut public spending in programs such as Medicare to compensate for the budget deficit.

The United States has spent more than one trillion dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 and the 2012 requested war budget was USD 118 billion.

Polls show that Americans support cuts in US military spending.

US accused of robbing Iraqi oil money

Head of the Iraqi Parliament's Integrity Committee Bahaa al-Araji

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185436.html

In a letter to the UN, Iraqi lawmakers accuse the US institutions of having stolen around 17 billion dollars of Iraq's oil fund following the 2003 invasion of the country.

In an official letter to the UN office in Baghdad last month, the Iraqi Parliament's Integrity Committee solicited the body's help to recover the missing fortune, which was taken from the Development Fund of Iraq (DFI) in the bedlam following the 2003 US-led invasion of the oil-rich country.

"All indications are that the institutions of the United States of America committed financial corruption by stealing the money of the Iraqi people, which was allocated to develop Iraq, (and) that it was about $17 billion," the letter was reported by Reuters as reading.

Earlier in June, US auditors warned as much as 6.6 billion dollars in Iraqi reconstruction funds may have been stolen in "the largest theft of funds in national history." The audit, by Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction Stuart Bowen, blamed the Pentagon for not keeping track of the funds, antiwar.com reported on June 14.

The alleged theft of money has been described by the parliamentary committee as a “financial crime” as the finger of suspicion falls on the US.

This comes while Iraq is not authorized to make a claim against the United States according to the UN Security Council resolutions.

The DFI was set up in 2003 at the behest of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to fund reconstruction projects and pay the salaries of Iraqi government employees. The CPA was headed by Paul Bremer who had been entrusted by the Bush administration with the task of overseeing the country's post-invasion reconstruction.

"No one on the Iraqi side was controlling the work of Paul Bremer at that time. So I think the administration of the United States needs to give the answers for where and how this (money) was being used,” Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh was quoted by Reuters as saying on Sunday.

"We cannot sue the Americans. Laws do not allow us to do that. All we want is to get this issue to the U.N.," said the head of the Iraqi Parliament's Integrity Committee, Bahaa al-Araji.

"If this works, it will open the way for Iraq to restore its stolen money," he added.

US defends war strategy in Afghanistan

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/184930.html

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has once again defended the US-led military presence in Afghanistan amid mounting pressure on Washington to withdraw troops from the war-weary country.

Gates admitted Wednesday that war fatigue is prevalent in the United States as the Afghan conflict nears its ten-year mark, the Associated Press reported.

“I know people are frustrated. The country has been at war for ten years. I know people are tired,” Gates told US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

Gates, however, pointed out that the United States and its allies have made progress in building-up Afghan security forces.

The US government is under heavy pressure at home to bring the American troops home from war-torn Afghanistan.

The calls for troops withdrawal have been getting louder since the announcement of the alleged killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden last month.

Also on Wednesday, 27 senators, Democrats and Republicans, sent a letter to US President Barack Obama, pressing for a shift in Afghanistan strategy and major troop cuts.

“Given our successes, it is the right moment to initiate a sizable and sustained reduction in forces, with the goal of steadily redeploying all regular combat troops,'' the senators wrote.

“The costs of prolonging the war far outweigh the benefits. It is time for the United States to shift course in Afghanistan.”

'US builds secret base in Persian Gulf'

A U.S. Predator unmanned drone armed with a missile

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/184839.html

The United States is constructing a secret CIA airbase in the Persian Gulf in an attempt to expand Washington's deadly drone war in the region, a report says.

Withholding the exact location of the base at the request of US officials, Associated Press reported on Wednesday that Washington has decided to build the airbase following indications that an anti-American faction may take over Yemen and ban US forces from fighting against al-Qaeda there.

According to the report, the White House has also increased the number of CIA officers in Yemen and stepped up the schedule to construct the drone base, from a two-year timetable to a rushed eight months, following months of political deadlock in Yemen.

US officials have described the moves as precautionary measures taken to face the possibility of al-Qaeda or other anti-American rebel forces gain control of Yemen.

The top US military counterterrorism outfit, the Joint Special Operations Command, and the CIA claim that they have been fighting al-Qaeda elements in the country since 2009 under the permission of the Yemeni government.

The US forces have recently expanded strikes by US armed drones and even war planes.

Officials with Yemen's Defense Ministry have confirmed that the US has been launching drone strikes on a daily basis against the nation in June, with more than 15 confirmed strikes already in the very month.

The deputy governor of Abyan Province said at least 130 people, among them civilians, were killed in US drone attacks.

Analysts believe that Washington is using Yemen's chaos as a cover for the its drone campaign.

US to sell $46 billion worth of arms in '11

The United States has expanded sale of equipment and military services in 2011

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/184401.html

The United States has planned to boost the sales of equipment and military services to USD 46.1 billion this year, nearly a twofold increase from the 2010 figures.

More than 13,000 contracts worth of USD 327 billion have already been signed with 165 countries, Defense Security Cooperation Agency Director Vice Admiral William Landay said on Saturday, AFP reported.

"From 2005 to 2010, we have delivered through the Foreign Military Sales process USD 96 billion worth of equipment, goods and services to partner countries," Admiral Landay added.

This is while the US military equipment sales tripled from USD 10 billion in the early 2000s to USD 30 billion after 2005.

The hike in the US exports is attributed to the war in Afghanistan that has increased the demands for purchased progress rather than material, Adm. Landay said.

The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 with the official objective of curbing militancy and bringing peace and stability to the region. However, after nine years, the region remains unstable and militancy has expanded towards Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the countries involved in the NATO-led air campaign on Libya have approached the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) for more ammunition.

Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Norway and the United Kingdom have participated in aerial operations on embattled Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

Experts say the main motive behind the Western attack on Libya is the vast oil reserves of the North African country.

On Sunday The Washington Post reported a USD 112 million increase in military sales to Bahrain between 2009 and 2010. In total, the US government has approved USD 200 million in military sales to the Persian Gulf kingdom during this period.

The US sells arms to Bahrain while scores of people have been killed and many more arrested and tortured in prisons in the Saudi-backed crackdown on protests in Bahrain -- a longtime ally of the US and home to a huge military base of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet.

Bahraini forces have abducted many people, including opposition activists, journalists, teachers, students, doctors, and nurses, and have also destroyed dozens of mosques.

Human rights groups and the families of protesters arrested during the crackdown say that most detainees have been physically and mentally abused, while the whereabouts of many of them still remain unknown.

90% seized 'Taliban' civilians: US report

US commander General David Petraeus

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/184452.html

Following the release of figures intended to portray an American success in Afghanistan, a US military report shows that almost 90 percent of Afghans "captured" as Taliban militants were actually civilians.

Back in December 2010, US commander General David Petraeus claimed that during the previous six months a total of 4,100 Taliban rank and file had been captured and 2,000 had been killed, only to be revealed that nearly 90 percent of those captured had been civilians, Inter Press Service reported.

Another set of misleading figures that was circulated claimed that US Special Operations Forces had captured 1,355 rank and file Taliban militants, killed 1,031, while having killed or captured 365 middle or high-ranking Taliban members through May and July of the same year.

The figures were released for media publicity and intended to reverse the US reputation over its losses in war-torn Afghanistan.

The report indicates that even more detainees were released from the US detention facility at Bagram airbase, also known as the Detention Facility in Parwan, after their files were reviewed by a panel of military officers.

Although the number of Taliban deaths claimed by the US is impossible to double check, the number of detainees can be monitored, as detainees can only be held in a Forward Operating Base for 14 days before being released or sent to long-term detention.

The death toll of the US-led forces in 2010 stood at 711, making the year the deadliest on record for foreign forces in Afghanistan since the start of the US-led invasion in 2001.

NATO has admitted that the power of militants in Afghanistan is on the rise despite the presence of nearly 150,000 US-led forces in the war-ravaged country.