Alternative News and Political Opinion in video and print.
Be Sure to Visit All 3 World United Websites for a different perspective in the World of News, Music and Awakening Topics.
US assassination drone strikes have killed at least 64 people in southern Yemen during attacks in the past three days on the provinces of Abyan and Bayda.
Yemeni government officials claimed that the airstrikes in the Bayda province and the town of Jaar in the Abyan province during March 9 to 11 targeted “militants.”
However, local residents rejected the government’s allegations and said the victims were civilians.
Yemeni security officials said at least five US assassination drones were involved in the latest strike in Jaar on Sunday, which claimed the lives of six people.
According to Yemeni officials, the assassination drones also conducted major attacks on Friday and Saturday, killing at least 58 people.
The US military uses drones in Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq, and Yemen.
The latest US airstrikes in Yemen were conducted days after longtime Yemeni dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh formally stepped down and handed power over to President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi on February 27.
The new Yemeni president, who is a UK-trained field marshal, was sworn in on February 25 following a single-candidate presidential election on February 21, which was supported by the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Ever since its creation, the US has had a role to play in combat operations worldwide. Today the country’s public opinion is dominated by warfare, making American society all-too-easily manipulated and turned against practically any country.
The US has a strong record of persuading the public that war is the only way.
A military industrial complex worth billions of dollars is largely America’s driving force. Deeply rooted in the system, it would serve no purpose if there was no one to fight.
“If there were no more enemies left, there would be a loss of a sense of mission,” anti-war activist and journalist Don Bebar told RT.
Serving Americans are on permanent stand-by to deploy to battle zones on command.
“The US army flag has 183 campaign ribbons on it. Those 183 ribbons each represent wars,” Iraq war veteran Matthis Chiroux from New York shared with RT.
“When you compare that to the 236 years that we’ve actually been around as a country, you’re talking about a war on average of once every year and three months,” he calculated.
As a consequence of the American bellicosity in general, Matthis Chiroux is now soothing his nerves in company with 170,000 American soldiers suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
The US always has a bone to pick with one enemy after another. For nearly half a century it was the Soviet Union.
“The communist threat was the most useful enemy. Where legitimate, and where completely fantastical, it was always available as a global conspiracy against which to justify anything,” Roots Action campaigner David Swanson told RT.
With the Cold War declared over, the list keeps expanding to smaller antagonists.
So it was with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 1991, when then President George H. W. Bush Sr. announced that “Allied forces began an attack on military targets in Iraq and Kuwait.”
Or with the former Yugoslavia, to which former President Bill Clinton signed a sentence in 1999 by announcing that the American Air Force was conducting “Air strikes against Serbian forces.”
Then it was ex-President George W. Bush, who was let off the leash after 9/11 terror attacks and announced a global War on Terror symbolized by Al-Qaeda. He started by invading Afghanistan in 2001 and continued with the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
In 2003, the US Air Force was “Striking selective targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein’s ability to wage war,” announced George W. Bush, meaning that waging wars is an exclusive privilege of the chosen mighty ones.
Ultimately, it has been current President Barack Obama, who was elected on promises to end wars, but now looks forward to military conflict with Iran after lending a hand in toppling the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. As in previous cases, last spring he made a characteristic “We hit Gaddafi’s air defenses” statement on the American TV.
With a defense budget that surpasses the military expenditure of all other countries combined, no other nation drums up war as consistently as America.
“While people are still responding and recovering from the violence that’s been committed in one place, or even in the same place, we’re launching new operations and more atrocities in different parts of the world,” acknowledged war correspondent Keith Harmon Snow.
So Fox News cannot but reiterate that Iran is the biggest threat, Syria is a minor threat, Russia is a traditional threat and China is an emerging threat.
That makes America's top brass state that a strike on Tehran is in the planning stages.
It also makes the US President Obama latest quest for diplomacy with Iran over its nuclear program look derisive in the face of a pending military confrontation.
Year in, year out, Americans are convinced that the US has to remain on the defensive.
“We’re petrified of death by terrorism. Shoot, I think a lot of Americans wish we’d spend more money on war,” veteran Matthis Chiroux confessed.
Finding the next target is never difficult.
Campaigner David Swanson says “We are inventing the nation of Iran as an enemy, as a threat to the United States, as a possessor of nuclear weapons it does not possess, a nation that has not attacked another in literally centuries, and has no capability or desire to attack ours.”
RT's Anastasia Churkina asked people on the streets of New York “Which country is the US going to be in a war with next?”
The most common answer she got was “Iran.”
The US has been picking and choosing which countries to intervene in for centuries. As the list of nations the US loves to hate expands, the concept that no war at all is also an option seems to have been forgotten.
Thirty-five people have been killed in the latest non-UN-sanctioned US assassination drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan.
On Friday, US drones fired several missiles targeting areas in Yemen's southeastern province of al-Bayda, killing 20 people, while 15 people were killed in attacks in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a local security official said that the number of casualties announced in the Jabra area of Yemen’s al-Bayda governorate was based on an initial security report from the targeted area.
The official added that more than two US drones were still striking several areas in three villages outside al-Bayda city.
In Pakistan, at least 15 people were killed and three were injured in the Shaktoi area of South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan.
Some sources said missiles fired from the US aircraft landed on a vehicle, while others said they targeted a house.
Dozens of people have lost their lives in CIA-operated assassination drone attacks in Pakistan since the beginning of 2012.
Washington claims that its airstrikes target militants crossing the Afghanistan border, but local sources say civilians have been the main victims of the non-UN-sanctioned strikes.
Pakistanis have held many demonstrations to condemn the United States’ violations of their national sovereignty.
Yemeni soldiers have staged protests in the capital, Sana’a, demanding the departure of the country’s military chiefs whom they accuse of corruption, Press TV reports.
The soldiers took to the streets of Sana’a on Thursday to call for the ouster of Brigadier General Hussein Khairan and Air Force Commander Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar-- a half brother of former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Meanwhile, people held demonstrations in the southern cities of Taizz and al-Bayda, demanding the immediate restructuring of the army and the ouster of Saleh's relatives from power.
The protesters also chanted slogans against the United States and Saudi Arabia and blamed them for keeping the former regime remnants in power.
Washington and Riyadh pushed for a deal that transferred power from Ali Abdullah Saleh to his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansur al-Hadi, in a US and Saudi-backed single-candidate election.
The deal also granted immunity from prosecution to Saleh and his close affiliates.
Yemeni people have been calling for the prosecution of the former ruler and his aides over the killing of protesters in a deadly crackdown against popular anti-regime protests that erupted in early 2011.
As Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi the winner of the country's single-candidate presidential vote takes office, a bomb attack in southern Yemen has killed at least 32 people.
The causalities come after a car bomb exploded outside the presidential palace in al-Mukalla located in Hadramawt Province, where Hadi was sworn in on Saturday.
Members of the elite Republican Guard are thought to be among the dead.
Al-Qaeda has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.
The violence comes hours after the new president replaced Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was forced to resign after months of protest against his rule.
Hadi, Saleh’s ex-deputy, was the single candidate in the presidential vote that took place on Tuesday, which was described by pundits as a mockery of democracy. He will lead Yemen for a two-year interim period.
Saleh, who returned home from a “medical visit” to the United States late on Friday, is set to formally hand over power to Hadi in a ceremony at the presidential palace on Monday.
Hadi pledged to continue the fight against al-Qaeda, which he called a "national and religious duty" in a live broadcast speech on television. "If we don't restore security, the only outcome will be chaos," he said.
Meanwhile, people took to the streets in the city of Taizz once again to renew their demand for a free Yemen and the prosecution of the 69-year-old Saleh and his aides.
In the southern Yemeni port city of Aden regime forces reportedly used live bullets against protesters.
The former deputy of Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh has been sworn in as the country’s new president after winning a US-backed one-man vote.
Saleh’s ex-deputy Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi was the single candidate in the presidential vote that took place on Tuesday, which was described by pundits as a mockery of democracy. He will lead Yemen for a two-year interim period.
"It is a patriotic and religious duty to continue the battle against Al-Qaeda," claimed the new Yemeni president.
"If we don't restore security, the only outcome will be chaos," Hadi said.
Saleh, who returned home from a “medical visit” to the United States late on Friday, is set to formally hand over power to Hadi in a ceremony at the presidential palace on Monday.
Saleh traveled to New York in late January allegedly to receive treatment for wounds sustained in an attack on his palace last year. The Yemeni people have slammed the US government for sheltering a man whom they blame for the deaths of a large number of protesters since a revolution began in January 2011.
The protesters now want the prosecution of the 69-year-old Saleh and his aides over the regime's deadly crackdown on peaceful demonstrators during the past year.
Members of the Yemeni election committee prepare ballot boxes on the eve of Yemen’s presidential election at a polling station, Sana’a, February 20, 2012
Voting has begun in Yemen’s presidential election with only one candidate on the ballot amid the opposition’s call for the downfall of the entire regime.
The polls opened Tuesday, with 12 million eligible voters, and the sole candidate Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
The election is to put an end to Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule and formally transfer power to his assistant, Hadi.
However, the country’s major opposition groups, including the Southern Movement and the Southern Shia group have boycotted the election, demanding the removal of the regime that abounds with Saleh-era officials.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has thrown Washington’s weight behind Yemen’s election, offering his support to Hadi.
In a letter to the Yemeni vice president, Obama said Yemen could be an example of the peaceful transition of power in the Middle East.
This is while demonstrations are expected to continue in Yemen as protesters say their revolution will not end until Saleh and all corrupt government officials are put behind bars.
On Monday, several polling stations were the target of bomb attacks prior to the beginning of the polls in the southern province of Aden and the southern port city of al-Makla, with no reports of casualties. The protesters also blocked roads leading to five villages in Daleh province, making it impossible for poll organizers to send ballot boxes there.
Saleh is currently in the US for medical treatment. He left Yemen in mid-January, shortly after the country’s parliament passed a law which grants him full immunity from prosecution.
The US Congress has passed a bill which approves government’s deployment of up to 30,000 spy drones in the country’s airspace by 2020, raising serious concerns about the ensuing privacy infringement.
The bill, which facilitates the government use of unmanned spy planes in US airspace, requires the Federal Aviation Administration to rush a plan to get as many drones in the air as possible within nine months.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act, which US President Barack Obama is expected to sign, also orders the FAA to develop regulations for the testing and licensing of commercial drones by 2015, The Washington Times reported.
Privacy advocates have protested that the measure will lead to the widespread use of drones for electronic surveillance by police agencies across the country and eventually by private companies as well.
“There are serious policy questions on the horizon about privacy and surveillance, by both government agencies and commercial entities,” said Steven Aftergood, who heads the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation also is “concerned about the implications for surveillance by government agencies,” said attorney Jennifer Lynch.
The provision in the legislation is the fruit of “a huge push by lawmakers and the defense sector to expand the use of drones” in American airspace, she added.
According to some estimates, the commercial drone market in the United States could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars once the FAA clears their use.
The US has been using the unmanned vehicles for its spy operations and assassination missions worldwide and the strikes have intensified since Obama took office three years ago.
Iraqi people have held a massive demonstration in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, to celebrate the end of the US-led occupation of their country, Press TV reports.
Millions of Iraqis have gathered in Baghdad to express their joy over the withdrawal of US troops from their country.
At the beginning of the ceremony, influential Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said the West, particularly the United States, were “defeated” in Iraq.
Sadr added that Iraqis will no longer accept foreigners in their country because they can never bring security and stability for Iraq.
The US forces “humiliated people, destroyed homes and desecrated mosques” during their presence in Iraq, Sadr stated.
On January 19, Iraqi people also held a similar demonstration in the city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.
The last US military base was handed over to Iraqi officials on December 16, 2011 and the last convoy of US troops left the country for Kuwait two days later.
In his speech on Thursday, Sadr also called on Sunni and Shia Muslims in the country to stand united.
There is no logical reason for the United States to continue running military bases in foreign countries, a political analyst tells Press TV's US Desk.
Professor Jennifer Loewenstein, associate director of Middle East Studies Program at University of Wisconsin, told our channel on Thursday that she did not think that “the United States has any reason to continue operating 1,100 US military bases” overseas.
The United States is estimated to have from 700 to over 1000 military bases overseas, which range from small drone sites on foreign airfields to vast facilities, according to the Canadian newspaper, National Post.
People imprisoned in these bases “have not ever been rightly convicted,” Loewenstein noted, adding that they “are called terrorists without [people] knowing what their backgrounds are.”
She went on to say that Washington had no right to operate bases in other countries or use them for the purposes of detention, torture, execution, and carrying out covert military operations. “All of the reasons that we are there overseas are questionable.”
US President Barack Obama has acknowledged Washington's unauthorized surveillance drone operations in Iraq where the un-mandated move has sparked outrage among senior Iraqi officials and the public.
"The truth is we're not engaging in a bunch of drone attacks inside Iraq. There's some surveillance to make sure that our embassy compound is protected," said Obama in a chat with web users on Google+ and YouTube on Monday.
The confirmation came after The New York Times disclosed that the US State Department began operating some drones in Iraq last year on a trial basis to help protect the US embassy and that it stepped up their use after the last US troops left the country in December.
The report has infuriated senior Iraqi officials who say Washington must respect the country's sovereignty and consult with the government in Baghdad before carrying out any operations now that “the war is over.”
"I think that there's this perception that we're just sending in a whole bunch of strikes, willy nilly," Obama said, adding, "It is important for everybody to understand that this is kept on a very tight leash."
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland also claimed that her department uses unmanned aerial vehicles to take pictures of US facilities and personnel abroad.
Meanwhile, The Times said that senior Iraqi officials told the newspaper that the US had not consulted with Iraqi government about the drone operations and that despite the official US withdrawal from Iraq, it maintains a strong presence in the country.
The daily added that since getting the approval for using surveillance drone aircraft over Iraq might be hard, given the political tensions between the two countries, the US continues drone operations in the country without a formal approval from Iraq.
It also said that Washington plans to take bids for the management of drone operations in Iraq over the next five years.
After nearly a full-term in office, US President Barack Obama's eligibility for presidency is being challenged as an Atlanta court has summoned him.
A Georgia judge has ordered President Obama to appear in court on Thursday for a hearing on a complaint that says Obama cannot be president as he is not a natural-born US citizen. It is, however, unclear whether a court could force a sitting president to appear in court.
California attorney Orly Taitz has filed the lawsuit which is challenging the presence of Obama's name on the March presidential primary ballot.
Taitz says she has been working on the case over the last three years.
“This will be 100 times bigger than Watergate,” she said referring to the 1970s political scandal that brought down former US President Richard Nixon adding, “There are high ranking judges and federal officials who are involved in this cover up. The ramifications of this trial will be enormous.”
Although Taitz said that she knew the president's legal team would fight his appearance in the Georgia court, she went on to say that, “If he [Obama] is appealing this decision, then he looks guilty. The whole nation understands this man is a fraud.”
Taitz's lawsuit is one of many such lawsuits filed nationwide against the president. Yet Obama campaign officials say such claims have no merit.
The Georgia judge has denied a motion by Obama's lawyer to nullify a subpoena that requires Obama to show up.
The allegations against Obama come as primaries and caucuses are scheduled to be held over the next few months in every US state to vote on the Republican Party competitors before a final nominee is elected at the party convention in August to challenge President Obama in the 2012 elections.
US President Barack Obama has stressed Washington's military collaboration with Israel in his State of the Union address.
In his election-year State of the Union address on Tuesday, the US president spoke of the country's alliances across the globe, mentioning its 'oldest alliances in Europe and Asia' and its 'deeper ties to the Americas.'
In his speech to the US congress, Obama also highlighted the US loyalty to Israel, saying “Our ironclad commitment -- and I mean ironclad -- to Israel's security has meant the closest military cooperation between our two countries in history.”
Obama's comments come amid repeated threats from the United States and Israel of the "option" of a military strike against Tehran based on the allegation, championed by Washington, Tel Aviv, and their allies, that Iran's nuclear activities may consist of a covert military agenda.
Iran has refuted the allegations, saying as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Amid the harshly-toned and increasing Western allegations against Iran, analysts have questioned the West's continued refusal to consider Israel's aggressive military agenda to be a threat against Iran.
Iranian officials have reacted strongly to the American and Israeli war rhetoric, saying that the Islamic Republic will deliver a crushing response to any military strike against the country.
Yemeni dictator Ali Abdullah Salehi (shown) left Yemen to travel to the US on January 22, 2012, amid a growing popular uprising in the Middle Eastern country.
An American political activist has lashed out at Washington for accepting Yemeni dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, saying the US has long been a safe haven for authoritarian rulers across the world, Press TV reports.
“I think it is wrong for the US government to accept Saleh coming from Yemen, as the people of Yemen should be the ones to determine his future,” Medea Benjamin, co-founder of both CODEPINK and the international human rights organization Global Exchange, told Press TV on Sunday.
“The US unfortunately has a history of taking in dictators from other countries, which goes against the principles that people who commit crime should be held in judgment through legal processes by the constituency of their own country and this should be the case for Yemen,” she added.
“The US has been supporting Saleh dictatorship both with weapons and with other logistical kinds of support," the activist pointed out.
Benjamin also criticized the US officials for attaching more importance to their so-called war on terror than the democratic rights of the Yemeni people.
Saleh left Yemen's capital, Sana'a, on Sunday and will visit Oman en route to the US.
In a televised farewell speech on Sunday, Saleh said, “I will go to the United States for treatment and will then return as the head of the General People's Congress party,” Yemeni state media reported.
On Saturday, Yemen's parliament approved a law that grants complete immunity from prosecution to Saleh for the crimes committed during his 33-year-long rule.
Yemeni anti-regime protesters reject the immunity law and say that Saleh and his aides must face prosecution for the killing of hundreds of demonstrators during the popular uprising that began in January 2011.
Yemeni dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh has left the capital, Sana'a, for the United States to receive medical treatment, an official says.
The official from Saleh's office said the Yemeni dictator left the capital on Sunday but did not specify Saleh's destination.
This comes while authorities in Sana'a said on Sunday that Saleh's son, who runs the Republican Guard, was “already in Oman” to prepare for his father's visit to the Arab country en route to the United States.
In a farewell speech earlier on Sunday, Saleh said, “I will go to the United States for treatment and will then return as the head of the General People's Congress (GPC) party,” Yemeni state media reported.
Last week, a senior official of Saleh's GPC party said Saleh will visit “Oman and then Ethiopia before travelling to New York for [the] treatment” of the wounds he sustained in an attack on the presidential palace in June 2011.
Saleh's departure from Sana'a comes one day after Yemen's parliament approved a law that grants complete immunity from prosecution to the dictator for the crimes committed during his 33-year-long rule.
The immunity law is part of a power transfer deal brokered by the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council and supported by the United States. The legislation gives immunity to Saleh's aides only on “politically motivated” criminal acts and not on corruption charges.
“I ask for forgiveness from all my people, men and women, for any shortcomings during my 33-year-long rule,” Saleh said during his speech on Sunday.
However, Yemeni anti-regime protesters reject the immunity law and say that Saleh and his aides must face prosecution for the killing of hundreds of demonstrators during the popular uprising that began in January 2011.
The Yemeni parliament has also adopted a law that approves Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi as the “consensus candidate” in the upcoming presidential election of February 21.
A major American daily highlighted numerous Washington policies adopted since September 11, 2001 that severely reduce civil liberties in the name of national security.
The article, published in the January 14 edition of the Washington Post blasts the annual US government reports that censure rights abuses in other countries, and lists 10 recent US laws that seriously undermine individual rights and freedoms, most notably the recent National Defense Authorization Act, signed by President Barack Obama on December 31, 2011, allowing for the indefinite detention of citizens.
According to the article, US intelligence and judicial procedures have introduced over the past ten years laws and regulations that grant Washington the authority to openly undermine the very principle of liberty in the country and abuse civil liberties that have long served as America's pretexts to launch human rights publicity campaigns against its perceived foes.
Assassination of US citizens
President Barack Obama has extended former President George W. Bush's order to kill "any citizen considered a terrorist or an abettor of terrorism." The killing of Anwar al-Awlaki last year is the latest example of a US citizen falling victim to the practice.
Indefinite detentions
Earlier, Washington signed a practice into law that allows for the incarceration of 'terrorism suspects' by the military forces or upon a presidential order without a trial. Despite wide criticisms against the practice, the White House insists that it will oppose efforts to challenge such authority in federal courts.
Arbitrary justice
Obama maintains the Bush-initiated practice of deciding whether a person should stand trial in the federal courts or in a military tribunal. This is while the system is being widely 'ridiculed' across the world for its lack of basic due process protections.
Warrantless searches
The US president has acquired a sweeping power to order surveillances without justification, including the authority to order companies and organizations to provide the government with information on citizens and conduct searches of everything from business documents to library records.
Secret evidence
The US government has officially made itself entitled to resort to 'secret evidence' to detain individuals and use such evidence in federal and military courts.
It has also used 'national security' as the pretext to dismiss the cases against the United States, contending that the government cannot reveal classified information even to the affected party.
Secret court
The government has extended the scope of its authority to use the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to bring the individuals deemed to be aiding or abetting hostile foreign governments or organizations to trial.
The powers also allow for secret searches of individuals who are not part of an identifiable terrorist group.
War crimes
The Obama administration has insisted that it would not allow the CIA employees to be investigated or prosecuted for waterboarding terrorism suspects during the Bush administration.
The current administration has also reportedly urged foreign governments not to allow any investigation into the war crimes by Bush officials to proceed in their respective countries.
Immunity from judicial review
Both the Bush and Obama administrations have pushed for immunity for companies that conduct warrantless surveillance of citizens. The efforts have deprived the American citizens of their right to challenge the violation of their privacy.
Continual monitoring of citizens
The White House has succeeded to assert its claim that it is authorized to employ GPS devices to monitor all the activities of targeted citizens without a need for court order or review.
Extraordinary renditions
The US government has made itself authorized to transfer both US citizens and noncitizens to a third party country to avoid the legal consequences of torture on American soil. The practice is called by critics as "torture by proxy."
On September 11, 2001, a series of coordinated attacks were carried out in the United States, leaving almost 3,000 people dead.
Many American individuals and organizations still question the official line on what exactly happened on 9/11. Many of them believe that the attacks were either partly or entirely an inside job.
The US, under the Bush administration, invaded Afghanistan in 2001 after claiming that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by members of al-Qaeda harbored by the then Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
The US also attacked Iraq in 2003 claiming that the Middle Eastern country was in possession of weapons of mass destruction; however, after invading the country, the claim proved to have been baseless.
As the United States continues its threats of war against Iran, its Department of Defense has recently dispatched some 15,000 troops to neighboring Kuwait.
Late last year, Marine General James Mattis quietly won the White House's approval for the deployment into the small nation which is separated from Iran by a narrow stretch of the Persian Gulf.
Mattis says the deployment aims to keep Iran in check and keep the US prepared for threats in the region.
The latest deployment adds to the strong presence of US-led troops in the region in countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
Although weeks have passed since the US vacated its troops from Iraq, it still has advanced presence in the area through its embassy in Baghdad, where thousands of armed military contractors are still being employed.
Also late last year, the US equipped neighboring United Emirates with advanced weaponry aimed at disrupting underground nuclear activities.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Army downed a US reconnaissance drone which had crossed over into Iran's airspace near its border with neighboring Afghanistan.
The US, Israel and their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing a military nuclear program and have used this allegation as a pretext to sway the UNSC to impose four rounds of sanctions on Iran.
Based on these accusations, they have also repeatedly threatened Tehran with the "option" of a military strike.
The United States plans to withdraw about 7,000 US troops as part of its new 10-year defense strategy giving strategic priority to the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions.
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said two brigade combat teams, roughly 7,000 US troops, of the 81,000 troops based in Europe will be withdrawn from the continent.
"The Secretary and other senior Department officials have consulted closely with our European allies on our new strategic guidance," said Pentagon spokesman George Little, adding that "Our security commitments to Europe and to NATO are unwavering."
The new US defense strategy comes at a time when the US economy is facing a national debt of more than $15 trillion after a decade of costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and is preparing for 487 billion dollars in defense cuts over the next 10 years.
On January 5, US President Barack Obama announced the shift in Washington's defense strategy to reduce the expenses. He said reductions will not be arbitrary, linear or unilateral and that the defense budget would be spent in accordance with strategic needs.
Panetta said that the US will continue to maintain its presence “both in the Middle East and Asia."
"Yes, we'll have the Navy and the Air Force, but in my experience, in any conflict you need to have the potential use of ground forces."
The United States is concentrating its military might in Asia as it is alarmed over China's growing navy and arsenal of anti-ship missiles that could threaten America's military supremacy in the Pacific.
Meanwhile Britain has warned that Russia is also not overlooked in the US shift of position to Asia, describing the US as an 'unpredictable force on the global stage'.
An eye-opening video clip that made it online Wednesday may cause a scandal on par with what erupted with the Abu Ghraib photographs of 2004. Now US Marines have been caught on film - urinating on dead Afghans.
A 40-second excerpt of the clip has managed to made its web to the Web and in it viewers can watch four US Marines on patrol in Afghanistan allegedly urinating on the corpses of deceased Afghan men. It is unclear of the victims’ identities in this incident, but according to a note included with the uploaded file, the US servicemen were members of the Marine Scout Sniper Team 4 and the 3rd Battalion 2nd Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The group was dispatched to the northern Helmand Province in Afghanistan during the summer of 2011.
Ten years after beginning military operations in Afghanistan, the US military still maintains an active presence there, making it the longest continuous war in American history. President Obama has vowed to bring back troops in full by 2014, but this event could cause widespread outrage against the military operation, with the latest incident increasing tensions unmatched since the Abu Ghraib scandal of years’ past.
Earlier in the War on Terror, American troops were caught grossly mishandling prisoners at the Abu Ghraib detention facility in Baghdad, Iraq, humiliating, injuring and subjecting them to clearly inhumane conditions that resulted in at least one death. Nearly eight years later, the event and the photographs and videos to come out of it are among the most notorious notches in terms of America’s inability to control its own military in the policing of the world.
In the Abu Ghraib incidents, US troops were revealed to torture and chastise prisoners who were serving as living detainees with the institute’s walls. In the latest clip, however, Americans are shown not just disrespecting the alleged enemy, but failing to honor those that lost their lives in the name of war.
One of the American servicemen is heard in the clip announcing, “Have a great day, buddy,” while he relieves himself on the body of a slain Afghan. “Golden like a shower” snickers another.
Three slain Afghans lay bloodied while American servicemen urinate on their bodies.
According to Camp Lejeune’s official US military website, its mission is “to maintain combat-ready units for expeditionary deployment.” In October 2011, the Marine Corps finished a $20 million investment in Camp Lejeune, in turn transitioning the facility into a 32,000-square-foot recreation of Afghan turf.
"In the Marine Corps, we call this graduate-level training," Col. Dan Lecce, commander of the camp, told the News & Observer back then. Now, however, the US Marine Corps will investigate how the troops got away with this despicable act and try to nip the blowback in the bud before tensions between the US and Afghanistan worsen anymore.
While the exact identities of the victims are not known at this time, the three corpses are clad in civilian clothes, not military uniforms. One man, who seems to be the youngest of the pack, is donned in a blood-soaked shirt. The group is laid out in clear terrain sheltered by bushes an adjacent to a wheelbarrow, which could mean that the men were ambushed while participating in civilian activity.
After the video went viral Wednesday, authorities have responded with a quick rebuttal. "While we have not yet verified the origin or authenticity of this video, the actions portrayed are not consistent with our core values and are not indicative of the character of the Marines in our Corps.”
On YouTube, one viewer of the clip writes, “Thanks fellas, you just pissed away everything me and my boys fought for.”
An early 2010 incident in which a gang of US troops opened fire and killed Afghan civilians landed charges for at least four of them. Although they have admitted guilt in the so-called “thrill kill” massacre, Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs could be free in as soon as 10 years despite being found guilty of 15 counts, including three charges of premeditated murder.
Only one month ago, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told troops at the US base in Pakika province that the war in Afghanistan "has been a difficult and complicated relationship . . . but it is an important relationship, and it is one that we have to continue to work at.”
A political analyst says the US is the biggest violator of the self-written treaty that makes war unlawful unless attacked by another nation.
Before enumerating the most unlawful US wars in history, Carl Herman urges the American military and/or law enforcement to arrest the current American war criminals and prevent Washington from launching another war.
“The basis of law provides US military and all with Oaths to defend the US Constitution to refuse unlawful orders and act to arrest those who issue them,” Herman said.
1. The US has regularly violated treaties with Native Americans, as well as manipulating their meaning for the purpose of stealing their land.
2. In 1848, US President James Polk lied to Congress to start a war with Mexico, despite Abraham Lincoln's crystal-clear explanation as a member of Congress that the Adams-Onis Treaty placed the "border dispute" 400 miles within land forever promised to Mexico and forever promised as outside any US claim.
3. The US violated a treaty with Hawaii and stole their country in 1898.
4. The US entered in the First World War I on the basis that nothing should threatens America's national security and imprisoned the 3rd party Presidential candidates for questioning the war.
5. In the covert “Operation Ajax” the CIA overthrew the elected Iranian government led by Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh and installed a US-friendly brutal dictator. When that dictator was overthrown and Iran refused another, the US aided Iraq to unlawfully attack Iran from 1980-1988, killing up to a million Iranians.
6. The Vietnam War occurred after the US allowed the cancellation of an election to unify the South Vietnam with North Vietnam.
7. The US reneged on promises of freedom after the Spanish American War to impose its rule on the Philippines and install US-friendly dictators in Cuba.
8. The US and NATO promoted the war in Kosovo based on short-term military and casualty reports that were later found highly inaccurate.
9. After the September 11 attacks, the US army with the help of NATO invaded Afghanistan under the pretext of combating terrorism and locating Osama Bin Laden, which is now the longest military conflict in US history.
10. The entire world now knows that all “reasons” for war with Iraq were known to be false as they were told, according to Congressional reports.
Herman says that the "reasons" for war with Iran are as false as the "reasons" for war with Iraq and warns American to beware of another so called “defensive” war under false pretexts.
South Africa's Closing Argument Against Israel for Genocide at the ICJ
Freedom
Welcome!
World United News offers an honest approach to alternative news and opinion with back up links for readers to investigate information for themselves.
This blog also includes a number of important video playlists that cover specific topics, rare documentaries, debate, opinion, and viewpoints.
Please feel free to share anything that resonates with you or that you feel would benefit those in your circles. Comments are always welcome. ~Stewart Brennan~
I'm not in phase with what mainstream mediums have to offer, nor do I like being lied to. So I decided to build my own World where creativity, music, and truth prevail. Therefore I’m a photographer, Writer, Video Producer, News Reporter, Music Promoter, Radio DJ, Poet, Activist, Critical Thinker, and Problem Solver. Be sure to visit all my websites linked below for more of my world.
Posts
a.jpg)
a.jpg)
