Merchants of death celebrate Israel’s ‘dream’ at Paris Air Show

Merchants of Death – Lithograph by Mabel Dwight

The US of A(rms)

The United States dominates the global arms trade in a historic fashion and nowhere is that domination more complete than in the Middle East | WILLIAM D. HARTUNG

Infrastructure of US bases in the Middle East | David Vine

The United States has the dubious distinction of being the world’s leading arms dealer. It dominates the global trade in a historic fashion and nowhere is that domination more complete than in the endlessly war-torn Middle East. There, believe it or not, the U.S. controls nearly half the arms market. From Yemen to Libya to Egypt, sales by this country and its allies are playing a significant role in fuelling some of the world’s most devastating conflicts. But Donald Trump, even before he was felled by Covid-19 and sent to Walter Reed Medical Center, could not have cared less, as long as he thought such trafficking in the tools of death and destruction would help his political prospects.

Afghanistan: a general admission of abject failure – again

By TONY SEED

U.S. General Scott Miller, who took over command of the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan on September 2, admitted in an exclusive interview with NBC News on Tuesday, October 30, that the war in Afghanistan “is not going to be won militarily.”

Venezuela: Politics of assassination

Bodyguards cover president Nicolás Maduro as drones carrying explosives are shot down close to his platform (@XHNews / Twitter)

By TONY SEED*

(August 5, updated August 9, 14) – Both CBC and CTV national news on August 4 and August 5 openly contested that the terrorist drone attack in Caracas of August 4 constituted an attempted assassination of the president of that country, Nicolás Maduro, as affirmed by the Venezuelan government that night as well as video and photographic evidence provided by independent news sites in that country. They all but openly declared that the assassination attempt simply did not happen.

Denounce the ‘new’ defence policy

By TONY SEED

Trudeau’s Defence Minister, Harjit Sajjan, released Canada’s “new” defence policy today. Here are the highlights:

• A 70 per cent increase in defence spending over the next 10 years;
• A staggering 62 billion dollar increase over the next 20 years;
• An increase in the number of fighter jets to be purchased from 65 (under Harper) to 88;
• An increase in personnel in both the regular and reserve forces;
• The acquisition of armed combat drones, the deadly hallmark of the Obama war doctrine and whose target is the peoples of this country and abroad, suitable of being “capable of conducting surveillance and precision strikes”;
• The creation of 120 new military intelligence positions and 180 new civilian intelligence positions, as well as building a “Canadian Forces Intelligence Command” capacity. It specializes Canada’s armed forces in black ops and cyber-warfare, whose target is likewise the peoples of this country and abroad. It prioritizes “the expansion of CAF Joint Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (JISR) capabilities, while enhancing intelligence collection, analysis and fusion capabilities, and supporting and leveraging the expertise of Canada’s defence and security academic community”; and
• Expansion of the militarization of universities and research; $313 million is allocated for military research for the arms monopolies and $102 million for university and private sector outreach, i.e., recruiting and propaganda.

Why the rise of fascism is again the issue

Red Army doctor attends to Auschwitz prisoner after its liberation In January, 1945

By JOHN PILGER

The recent 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was a reminder of the great crime of fascism, whose Nazi iconography is embedded in our consciousness. Fascism is preserved as history, as flickering footage of goose-stepping blackshirts, their criminality terrible and clear. Yet in the same liberal societies, whose war-making elites urge us never to forget, the accelerating danger of a modern kind of fascism is suppressed; for it is their fascism.

Fighting ISIL is a smokescreen for US mobilization against Syria and Iran

By MAHDI DARIUS NAZEMROAYA

(Sept. 17) – THE ISIL or IS threat is a smokescreen. The strength of the ISIL has deliberately been inflated to get public support for the Pentagon and to justify the illegal bombing of Syria. It has also been used to justify the mobilization of what is looking more and more like a large-scale U.S.-led military buildup in the Middle East. The firepower and military assets being committed go beyond what is needed for merely fighting the ISIL death squads.

Documenting darkness: How the US thug state operates

Protest outside U.S. Embassy in Berlin, June 18, 2013.

By Tom Engelhardt*

TomDispatch.com (Feb. 20) – HERE, at least, is a place to start: intelligence officials have weighed in with an estimate of just how many secret files National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden took with him when he headed for Hong Kong last June. Brace yourself: 1.7 million.  At least they claim that as the number he or his web crawler accessed before he left town.  Let’s assume for a moment that it’s accurate and add a caveat.  Whatever he had with him on those thumb drives when he left the agency, Edward Snowden did not take all the NSA’s classified documents.  Not by a long shot.  He only downloaded a portion of them.  We don’t have any idea what percentage, but assumedly millions of NSA secret documents did not get the Snowden treatment.

Feverish expansion of the special forces of Obama’s outlaw state

An investigation by American journalist-author NICK TURSE* reveals that the secret military of the United States now operates in over half the nations on the planet, including the United States and Canada. It is expanding rapidly, despite claims aiming to minimize and downplay the extent of its global reach; simultaneously, the promotion of the Obama doctrine of drone warfare is unfettered. This is the reliance of U.S. imperialism on drones to conduct targeted assassinations, coupled with use of black ops (including so-called Information Warfare) to foment civil wars, mayhem and chaos. Politically, this is a desperate hope born out of anarchy that the U.S. can prevail over its rivals, including both competitors amongst the imperialist powers and against developing nations’ intent on making a way for themselves and against the peoples of the world fighting for their right to be. The drone war doctrine gives Obama a new false narrative – that the U.S. is no longer engaged in any wars, and hence its special forces are allegedly being cut back. – TS

US Special Operations Forces around the world, 2012-2013 (key below). Click here to see a larger image.

Key to the Map of US Special Operations Forces around the world, 2012-2013

• Red: Special Ops Forces deployed in 2013
• Blue: Special Ops Forces working with/training/advising/conducting operations with indigenous troops in the US or a third country during 2013.
• Purple: Special Ops Forces deployed in 2012
• Yellow: Special Operations Forces working with/training/advising/conducting operations with indigenous troops in the US or a third country during 2012.

Tomdispatch (Jan. 7) – “DUDE, I don’t need to play these stupid games. I know what you’re trying to do.” With that, Major Matthew Robert Bockholt hung up on me.

More than a month before, I had called US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) with a series of basic questions: In how many countries were US Special Operations Forces deployed in 2013? Are manpower levels set to expand to 72,000 in 2014? Is SOCOM still aiming for growth rates of 3%-5% per year? How many training exercises did the command carry out in 2013? Basic stuff.

Pakistan: Anti-NATO sit-in completes 44th day

The Nation (Jan. 6) PESHAWAR – THE SIT-IN of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf against NATO supplies and drone attacks continued on the 44th consecutive day on Sunday. The sit-in was led by activists of PTI FATA leader Amin Zada Afridi, Jamal Afridi, Abdul Razaq Shinwari, Dr Khalil Khan, Khan Rahman Afridi, Sajid Mohmand and Naveed Khan. Besides party workers from FATA, activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and Awami Jamhori Ittehad also attended the sit-in.

Addressing on the occasion, PTI leaders vowed to continue anti-drone campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other parts of the country. They said that NATO supplies will remained blocked till assurance of United States for stopping drone attacks. They criticised the role of the federal government to stop drone attacks in Pakistani tribal areas and said that Pakistan Muslim League (N) leadership has failed to convey their message for halting drone strikes in Pakistan.

US empire of bases grows

Introduction – On August 16, 2004, the Bush Administration announced a proposal to significantly alter the U.S. overseas military basing posture. The plan would establish new overseas operating sites, and transfer up to 70,000 U.S. troops, plus 100,000 family members and civilians, from Europe and Asia back to the United States. The Bush regime argued that current U.S. global basing arrangements were a product of World War II and the Korean War.

Britain: First national ‘Ground the Drones’ demonstration

Over 400 protesters march to the perimeter fence of RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire to protest its use as a centre for drone piloting in Afghanistan | Matthew Cooper/PA

STOP THE WAR activists from across Britain took part in the first national “Ground the Drones” demonstration in Lincolnshire on April 27. It brought together the workers movement from Lincoln and Stop The War groups from many parts of Britain to oppose these barbarous terrorist weapons that are being operated from the military base at RAF Waddington over Afghanistan. The base assumed control of British drone missions in Afghanistan earlier that week. 

Obama’s outlaw state: NY Times, Washington Post helped Obama hide drone warfare

Guardian, UK – US news organizations are facing accusations of complicity after it emerged that they bowed to pressure from the Obama administration not to disclose the existence of a secret drone base in Saudi Arabia despite knowing about it for a year.

Border stories: Drones, surveillance towers, malls of the spy state and the national security police on the Northern border

Living in a constitution-free zone | TODD MILLER*

“Now, the entire U.S. perimeter has become part of a Fortress USA mentality and a lockdown reality.” | Ryan Bayne

(February 7, 2013) – Before September 11, 2001, more than half the border crossings between the United States and Canada were left unguarded at night, with only rubber cones separating the two countries. Since then, that 4,000 mile “point of pride,” as Toronto’s Globe and Mail once dubbed it, has increasingly been replaced by a U.S. homeland security lockdown, although it’s possible that, like Egyptian-American Abdallah Matthews, you haven’t noticed. 

The significance of Obama’s second presidency: Obama’s outlaw state

Can the world survive the Obama drone war doctrine?

ONE OF THE MAIN FEATURES of Obama’s second term in office will be the unfettered promotion of his so-called drone war doctrine. This is the reliance of U.S. imperialism on drones to conduct targeted assassinations, coupled with use of black ops to foment civil wars, mayhem and chaos. This is a desperate hope born out of anarchy that the U.S. can prevail over its rivals, including both competitors amongst the imperialist powers and against developing nations’ intent on making a way for themselves and against the peoples of the world fighting for their right to be.

The Obama drone war doctrine contends that the security of the United States and its empire-building project can be achieved through the destruction of individual and collective rights at home and abroad. This conception is false and doomed to failure as it runs counter to the trend of history towards the affirmation of individual and collective rights. The security of any modern nation lies in the fight for the rights of all both nationally and internationally.

PBS show on drones funded by drone maker

FAIR – The PBS Nova broadcast “Rise of the Drones” was sponsored by U.S. drone manufacturer Lockheed Martin – a clear violation of PBS’s underwriting guidelines.

As Kevin Gosztola reported (FireDogLake), the January 23 broadcast was a mostly upbeat look at surveillance and weaponized drones. “Discover the cutting edge technologies that are propelling us toward a new chapter in aviation history,” PBS urged, promising to reveal “the amazing technologies that make drones so powerful.”

Obama’s outlaw state: Exposé of U.S. covert drone strikes in 2012

FOR THE information of our readers, we are providing an indepth, secret history of U.S. drone warfare during the past year by CHRIS WOODS, JACK SERLE and ALICE K. ROSS, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Drone warfare is a political program of warfare and extra-judicial assassination that operates directly from the White House against citizens of sovereign states, without any charges or judicial process, constituting an inhuman war crime and a reckless disregard for international law.

Militarization of the Arctic – Canada: Battle line in East-West conflict

By RICK ROZOFF, Stop NATO

(June 3, 2009) – REFERRING to newly released documents, though not revealing what they were, a major Canadian press wire service reported on May 26 that the government plans to acquire a “family” of aerial drones over the next decade.[1]