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How We Lost The Syrian Revolution Rebels would systematically loot the neighborhoods they entered. They had very little regard for the lives and property of the people, and would even kidnap for ransom and execute anyone they pleased with little recourse to any form of judicial process. They would deliberately vandalize and destroy ancient and historical landmarks and icons of the city. They would strip factories and industrial zones bare, even down to the electrical wiring, hauling their loot of expensive industrial machinery and infrastructure off across the border to Turkey to be sold at a fraction of its price. Shopping malls were emptied, warehouses, too. They stole the grain in storage silos, creating a crisis and a sharp rise in staple food costs. They would incessantly shell residential civilian neighborhoods under regime control with mortars, rocket fire and car bombs, causing death and injury to count...

Syrian Rebel Alliance Openly Threatens Ethnic Cleansing Syrian Rebel Alliance Openly Threatens Ethnic Cleansing By Alex Newman May 30, 2013 " Information Clearing House " -  A spokesman for the primary rebel alliance in Syria, known as the “Free Syrian Army,” threatened that opposition forces could start implementing a broad ethnic-cleansing program aimed at Shia Muslims and especially the Islamic Alawite sect to which dictator Bashar al-Assad belongs. As Obama administration-led Western powers and a coalition of Sunni Arab dictators continue to fuel the increasingly ruthless conflict, the rebel FSA spokesperson said in a TV interview that minority communities would be “wiped off the map” if the regime’s forces managed to capture the city of Al-Qusair. The genocide announcement came shortly after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blasted his Senate Foreign Relations Committee colleagues for voting to arm the r...

Mubarak-era cruelty continues at Rafah crossing Since 2006 — when Hamas unexpectedly won Palestinian parliamentary elections — the situation at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt has been a source of extraordinary confusion.

'Obama Must be Taken Before ICC for the War on Terror' - Noam Chomsky May 23, 2013 " Information Clearing House " -" RT " - The US war on terror is in fact the most massive terror campaign ever, and the invasion of Iraq was the worst crime in recent history, prominent liberal thinker Noam Chomsky told RT, adding that he wants to see Bush, Blair and Obama tried at the ICC.

Killing Americans: Jeremy Scahill on Obama Admin's Admission 4 U.S. Citizens Died in Drone Strikes The Obama administration has admitted for the first time to killing four U.S. citizens in drone strikes overseas. Three died in Yemen: the Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, his 16-year-old son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. A fourth, Jude Kenan Mohammed -- whose death was not previously reported -- was killed in Pakistan.   In a letter to Congress, Attorney General Eric Holder suggested that all but the attack on the elder al-Awlaki were accidental, saying the other three "were not specifically targeted." The admission came on the eve of a major address in which President Obama is expected to defend the secret targeted killing program and announce modified guidelines for carrying it out. We're joined by Jeremy Scahill, author of the new book, "Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield," and co-producer of the upcoming documentary film by the same name. http...

Gangster State America May 14, 2013 " Information Clearing House " -   There are many signs of gangster state America. One is the collusion between federal authorities and banksters in a criminal conspiracy to rig the markets for gold and silver. My explanation that the sudden appearance of an unprecedented 400 ton short sale of gold on the COMEX in April was a manipulation designed to protect the dollar from the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing policy has found acceptance among gold investors and hedge fund managers.  The sale was a naked short. The seller had no gold to sell. COMEX reported having gold only equal to about half of the short sale in its vaults, and not all of that was available for delivery. 

Life "no longer bearable" in Syria, says Palestinian refugee One of the most distressing scenes that Redwan Amayra witnessed in  Syria  was of a woman being shot as she carried some bread. After warplanes hit  Yarmouk , a Palestinian refugee camp near  Damascus , last November, Amayra decided to flee. A 60-year-old teacher employed with the  UN agency for Palestine refugees  (UNRWA), Amayra had just registered with the  Palestinian Authority’s  embassy in  Cairo . It is not the first time that his family has been uprooted: they were forced to leave  Safed , a town in the  Galilee  region of historic Palestine, when it was attacked by Zionist forces in 1948.

Ríos Montt Guilty of Genocide: Are Guatemalan President Pérez Molina, U.S. Officials Next? Ríos Montt Guilty of Genocide: Are Guatemalan President Pérez Molina, U.S. Officials Next? By Democracy Now!  - Video and Transcript May 13, 2013 " Information Clearing House " -" Democracy Now! " - In a historic verdict, former U.S.-backed Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt has been sentenced to 80 years in prison after being found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. Ríos Montt was convicted of overseeing the slaughter of more than 1,700 people in Guatemala’s Ixil region after seizing power in 1982. The ruling marks the first time a former head of state had been found guilty of genocide in his own country. .....

Syrian Rebel Commander Cuts Organs Out of Assad Soldier’s Body and Eats Them « Antiwar.com Blog Aryn Baker at TIME reports  on a video out of Syria depicting the savagery of rebel commander Khalid al-Hamad: The video starts out like so many of the dozens coming out of the war in Syria every day, with the camera hovering over the body of a dead Syrian soldier. But the next frame makes it clear why this video, smuggled out of the city of Homs and into Lebanon with a rebel fighter, and obtained by TIME in April, is particularly shocking. In the video a man who is believed to be a rebel commander named Khalid al-Hamad, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, bends .......

Ronald Reagan: Accessory to Genocide May 12, 2013 "Information Clearing House - The conviction of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt on charges of genocide against Mayan villagers in the 1980s has a special meaning for Americans who idolize Ronald Reagan. It means that their hero was an accessory to one of the most grievous crimes that can be committed against humanity.  The courage...

Drone Operator Tells of Killing Civilians, Children « Antiwar.com Blog Print This  |  Share This  |  Comment Here is an NPR segment featuring a former Air Force pilot who operated drones. He describes targeting and killing people he thinks were civilians, or at least not a threat. He describes bombing a man running away, and when the smoke cleared saw the man get his leg blown off and bleed to death. He also describes killing a child in a drone strike.

BBC airs Israeli "Independence Day" propaganda presented as documentary On 17 April, the day after the BBC announced the appointment of the openly pro-Israel former editor of  The Times , James Harding, as the organization’s director of news and current affairs, it screened a program called  Israel: Facing the Future .

Boston and Beyond - In These Times On April 23, Yemeni activist and journalist  Farea Al-Muslimi , who had studied at an American high school, testified before a U.S. Senate committee that right after the marathon bombings, a drone strike in his home village in Yemen killed its target.    The strike terrorized the villagers, turning them into enemies of the United States—something that years of jihadi propaganda had failed to accomplish. His neighbors had admired the U.S., Al-Muslimi told the committee, but “Now, however, when they think of America, they think of the fear they feel at the drones over their heads. What radicals had previously failed to achieve in my village, one drone strike accomplished in an instant.” 

Massively Expensive: Gitmo Costs Nearly $1 Million Per Detainee -- News from Antiwar.com Pentagon estimates put the cost of running Guantanamo Bay  at over $900,000 per detainee , roughly 15 times the cost of keeping a prisoner at a US supermax prison, and roughly 30 times the average federal prison in the US.

US, Israel and Saudi Arabia propping up al-Qaeda in Syria From the beginning, it was clear to geopolitical analysts that the conflict in Syria was not "pro-democracy" protesters rising up, but rather the fruition of a well-documented conspiracy between the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia to arm and direct sectarian extremists affiliated with Al Qaeda against the Syrian government.

Kimberly Rivera, Pregnant Mom of Four, Sentenced to Military Prison for Refusing to Serve in Iraq

Force-feeding Breaches Law, UN Says Amid Guantanamo Strike Out of 166 inmates held at the prison at the remote US naval base in southeastern Cuba, 100 are on hunger strike, according to the latest tally from military officers. And of those, 21 detainees are being fed through nasal tubes.

Judeocentric Supremacy And Pappe's Discomfort Judeocentric Supremacy And Pappe's Discomfort By Gilad Atzmon May 01, 2013 " Information Clearing House " -  Ilan Pappe  is an important voice. One of those courageous historians, brave enough to open the Pandora box of 1948.  Back in the 1990s Pappe, amongst a few other Israeli post-Zionists, reminded Israelis of their original sin - the orchestrated, racially-driven ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of Palestine - the Nakba.

As Jews we say "Birthright" trips must end As the summer months approach, thousands of young Jews from more than 60 countries prepare to participate in the  Taglit-Birthright  program. Since 1999, Birthright has brought 340,000 young Jews to Israel on free ten-day trips. In the midst of the fervor to sign up for this bi-annual program, we have launched the website Renounce Birthright ( renouncebirthright.org ) with the aim of providing a space for potential participants to engage with critiques of Birthright and of  Zionism .