Archive
UK Military Assets Deployed Near Yemen
Wednesday, 08 June 2011 06:20
‘The British government has deployed two warships including naval support ship RFA Fort Victoria and RFA Argus in the Gulf of Aden near Yemen.
The deployment of military assets near Yemen was confirmed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Monday, but it did not verify reports that ships were on standby in the Gulf of Aden to evacuate its nationals, British media reported.
“As part of routine deployment UK military assets are in the region, although we are not prepared to comment further on their exact operational tasking,” a MoD spokesman said.’
‘US Aims to Sabotage Pakistan Nuclear Facilities’
Wednesday, 08 June 2011 06:49
‘“We have accurate information that, in order to gain dominance over Pakistan and weaken the country’s government and nation, the Americans want to sabotage Pakistan’s nuclear facilities and pave the way for the US’s extended presence and the weakening of the national governing of the people through the lever of the [United Nations] Security Council and some international organizations,” Ahmadinejad said during a press conference on Tuesday.
The Iranian president noted that colonialists used the 9/11 attacks as a pretext to launch their largest military invasion on the [Middle East] region in order to “save from destruction the ailing economy of themselves and the Zionist regime (Israel) as the main base of ultra-modern colonialism.”‘
Read more: ‘US Aims to Sabotage Pakistan Nuclear Facilities’
Going Rogue: NATO War Crimes in Libya
Wednesday, 08 June 2011 06:54
‘It’s a story CNN won’t report. Late at night there’s a pounding on the door in Misurata. Armed soldiers force young Libyan women out of their beds at gun-point. Hustling the women and teenagers into trucks, the soldiers rush the women to gang bang parties for NATO rebels or else rape them in front of their husbands or fathers. When NATO rebels finish their rape sport, the soldiers cut the women’s throats.
Rapes are now ongoing acts of war in rebel-held cities, like an organized military strategy, according to refugees. Joanna Moriarty, who’s part of a global fact-finding delegation visiting Tripoli this week, also reports that NATO rebels have gone house to house through Misurata, asking families if they support NATO. If the families say no, they are killed on the spot. If families say they want to stay out of the fighting, NATO rebels take a different approach to scare other families. The doors of “neutral homes” are welded shut, Moriarty says, trapping families inside. In Libyan homes, windows are typically barred. So when the doors to a family compound get welded shut, Libyans are entombed in their own houses, where NATO forces can be sure large families will slowly starve to death.
These are daily occurrences, not isolated events. And Gaddafi’s soldiers are not responsible. In fact, pro-Gaddafi and “neutral” families are targeted as the victims of the attacks. Some of the NATO tactics may have occurred in hopes of laying blame on Gaddafi’s door. However the attacks are back firing.’
$75,000 Investigation Exonerates Police As They Kill Again and Kari Abbey Faces Murder Charges
Tuesday, 07 June 2011 08:52
‘In a move unsurprising to many, a five-month investigation into brutality and corruption of the Modesto Police Department has exonerated local law enforcement of any wrong doing. The investigation was launched to look into charges of police brutality that steamed from a series of leaked emails by both former and anonymous police officers claiming that the beating of suspects was common and that higher-up police, including Chief Harden, knew about the violations.
The “findings” of the investigation come at a time when former Stanislaus County Sheriff’s detective Kari Abbey is charged with “second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter along with conspiracy, embezzlement, cultivating marijuana, receiving stolen property and child endangerment, according to a criminal complaint.” More sinister, is the charge that Kari and her Haywood police boyfriend evicted people from their rentals for Abbey’s landlord parents. Several Modesto police officers also face ongoing charges ranging from drunk driving, spousal abuse, and taking drugs from evidence.’
Israeli Stealth Ships in Raids on Iran
Tuesday, 07 June 2011 07:59
‘Cargo vessels owned by Israel’s richest man, who died on Friday, had been used to ferry elite Israeli forces for operations inside Iran, according to defence sources.
The death in Tel Aviv of Sammy Ofer, 89, came just days after the United States accused his company of breaching sanctions by selling an oil tanker to Iran. It has mystified Israelis why a company with close links to the government was allegedly breaching sanctions.
Military experts suggested the cargo ships had carried Black Hawk helicopters, hidden in modified containers, for use by commando teams in reconnaissance missions against Iran’s secret nuclear sites. Israel is conducting a massive intelligence operation to monitor Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.’
US to take over UK nuclear weapons
Thu, 02 Jun 2011 10:05:59 GMT
The controversial US arms dealer, Lockheed Martin will lead a consortium of multinational private firms to run the UK’s nuclear bomb base at Coulport on the Clyde.
British defence ministers have decided to give the administration of the highly sensitive job of managing more than 200 Trident nuclear warheads, and arming the Royal
Navy’s submarines to US arms dealer within the next year.
Trade unionists and disarmament campaigners as well as Scotland National Party (SNP) has condemned the decision and urged for a rethink.
They described the decision as a cost-saving, job-cutting “kick in the teeth to the workforce” that will put nuclear safety at risk.
Up to 200 Coulport workers have been told that they will be seconded from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to a newly formed private-sector consortium called ABL.
ABL brings together AWE – which runs the Aldermaston nuclear weapons factory in Berkshire – Babcock, the British engineering company and US-owned Lockheed Martin Strategic Systems UK.
AWE is itself a consortium involving Lockheed Martin; another big US firm, Jacobs Engineering; and the UK management privatisation company, Serco.
According to the MoD’s detailed internal plan leaked to the Sunday Herald, ABL will be granted a contract to run Coulport for 15 years.
US Forces Open Fire on Afghan Schoolchildren
Sunday, 05 June 2011 06:09
‘US forces in Afghanistan have reportedly opened fire on school children in the troubled eastern Nangarhar Province, witnesses and residents say. Witnesses told Press TV on Saturday that the Americans shot at students who were leaving the school.
They say the shooting came after US forces came under a bomb attack near the school.’
The Obama Surveillance State
Sunday, 05 June 2011 06:47
‘Big Brother got even bigger under the first “Brotha” president, Barack Obama. Government also became even more secretive. “The Obama Justice Department says that only the executive branch has the power to determine what information courts ought to have” – a novel doctrine that wreaks havoc with the rights of people accused of crimes, especially whistleblowers. The death of Osama bin Laden, says Obama’s Attorney General, makes the Patriot Act even more vital to national security. “Perhaps we were better off when bin Laden was still alive.”‘
Read more: The Obama Surveillance State
Worse by the Day in Jerusalem
Saturday, 04 June 2011 06:36
‘As thousands of right-wing Israeli settlers descended on Jerusalem to celebrate the so-called unification of the city this week, Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem were confronted by extreme provocations and the stark reality that their city remains very much divided.
“My shop was broken into a couple of times, a few times, when I’m here on Jerusalem Day,” explained East Jerusalem resident Basem Hallak, who has owned an antique shop in the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City for 25 years.
“You will see kids – by the meaning of kids (I mean) from the age of 16, 17 – and what they are doing is carrying machine guns, carrying guns, walking like, ‘This is our city and you (Palestinians) are out of the game. You are out, completely out’,” Hallak told IPS.’
Read more: Worse by the Day in Jerusalem
Believe nothing 