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War in Ukraine Over Christmas
by Stephen Lendman
On Wednesday, Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine members met in Minsk. Discussing ongoing onbas conflict conditions. Ways to end them.
Attended by former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. Donetsk People's Republic Vice Chairman Denis Pushilin.
Lugansk People's Republic representative Vladislav Deinego. Russia's ambassador to Kiev Mikhail Zurabov. OSCE envoy Heidi Tagliavini.
Nothing so far was accomplished. Except agreement on exchanging prisoners. Talks will continue.
A date yet to be announced. While conflict persists in Donbas. Kiev bears full responsibility. Virtually ignored in the West. Ukraine's defense ministry lied.
Ukraine’s Government Is Starving Residents of the Breakaway Region
Eric Zuesse
Amnesty International has found that “the already desperate situation in eastern Ukraine is being made even worse by” so-called ‘volunteer’ or mercenary forces for the Ukrainian Government, which are blocking the supply of food to residents in that region, and trying to starve them to death.
Thus, “The region is facing a humanitarian disaster with many already at risk of starvation,” said Denis Krivosheev, acting Director of Europe and Central Asia for Amnesty International, on Wed., December 24th.
Amnesty International reports that, “Over half of the population in these areas are now entirely dependent on food aid.”
Israeli Good Tidings for Palestinians
by Stephen Lendman
Israel holds around 4.5 million Palestinians hostage on their own land in their own country. Under military rule. Affording them no rights whatever.
Especially 1.8 million besieged Gazans. Trapped in the world's largest open-air prison. Another 1.7 million Israeli Arab citizens treated like enemies of the state.
No signs of change whatever exist. Occupation harshness continues. Palestinian self-determination remains as distant as ever.
Besieged Gaza lies in ruins. Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement executive director Eitan Diamond reports a dire picture, saying:
"The tragic story of Gaza began before the latest hostilities, but the situation has become more dire as a consequence of the destruction caused by the hostilities."
Yanukovych Proposes Solution to Ukraine’s Civil War; It Fits Obama’s Plan
Commentary by Eric Zuesse
The Ukrainian President whom U.S. President Obama overthrew in a violent coup this past February is now proposing that “people will be able to negotiate and Ukraine will once again be united.”
The former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, in a lengthy interview published on Christmas Eve day in Russia’s weekly newspaper, “Arguments and Facts,” says this after having asserted in the very same statement, "Ordinary Ukrainians from the west and east have nothing to share.”
North Korea: Longstanding US Punching Bag
by Stephen Lendman
America needs enemies. For geopolitical reasons. To justify its war machine. Spend more on militarism called defense than the rest of the world combined.
Let war profiteers gorge at the public trough. Pretend its military might protects against world threats. Divert attention from Main Street Depression conditions.
North Korea is Washington's longstanding punching bag. Straight from central casting. Truman's war never ended. An uneasy armistice persists.
Pyongyang wanted normalized relations for decades. US administrations refuse. Tensions remain. Occasionally heightened like now.
The Interview: A Review and Comment on the General Hysteria
Michael Collins
The Interview looked like it would become the best-known movie that was never seen. The core narrative involves two buffoonish United States media personalities heading to North Korea to interview supreme leader Kim Jong-il. Before they leave, the CIA recruits them to assassinate Kim. Lacking any underlying sense of moral and personal integrity, show host Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer, Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogan), accept the assignment. (Image: The Interview - Wikipedia)
The leader of North Korea, the real Kim Jong-il, took exception to a big screen portrayal of a plot on his life in June. In November, a major hack to Sony Pictures and Entertainment's computing systems was attributed to a mysterious cadre of hackers in North Korea. When major theater chains said they wouldn't carry the film, Sony had enough. The company cancelled release of the film.
The ensuing controversy publicized the film in ways Sony could only imagine. Then, President Obama weighed in endorsing the release of the film. The prospect of a huge payday plus official endorsement from the President contributed to Sony's revised decision. The company announced that The Interview would be available soon on cable or internet pay per view. In addition, Sony made the film available to a group of independent cinemas known as the Art House Convergence after the cinemas signed an open petition on Change.org.
Global Peace, War and the Xmas: Killing Goes On
Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.
“The hell of human suffering, evil and oppression is paved with good intentions. The men who have most injured and oppressed humanity, who have most deeply sinned against it, were according to their standards and their conscience good men; what was bad in them, what wrought moral evil and cruelty, treason to truth and progress, was not at all in their intentions, in their purpose, in their personal character, but in their opinions.” - (Professor Robert Briffault. The Making of Humanity. London, 1918)
Leader across the globe use the Xmas and the New Year’s Eve as convenient opportunities to echo festive messages of peace and optimism as if they long the humanity. Despite the inherent wickedness of warmongers and institutions, the global community is tolerant and open to listening to the abstract and absurd alike. Analyzing critically and objectively, there is hardly any international leaders capable of articulating an effective and credible message of hope and change under the present global affairs. No matter where you look to the East and West, South and North, forces of darkness and evil go unchecked as if the mankind was just numbers and digits and nothing else in reality.
G-77 Countries+China Rebuke America
by Stephen Lendman
The Group of 77 (G-77 countries) at the UN was established on June 15, 1964. Its ranks now include 134 countries.
"(T)he original name was retained due to its historical significance," it said. It calls itself the UN's "largest intergovernmental organization of developing countries."
"(A)rticulating and promote their collective economic interests and enhance their joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues within the United Nations system, and promote South-South cooperation for development."
In early December, Congress passed "S. 2142: Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014."
Unanimously by voice vote. Not a single profile in courage opposed what demanded denunciation. On December 18, Obama signed S. 2142 into law.
Illegal legislation defying international law. Usurping power afforded solely to Security Council members.
The world's leading human rights abuser targeted one of its staunchest defenders. Guaranteeing fundamental rights for all its citizens.
Blessed Are the Peacemakers
by Stephen Lendman
The late historian Gabriel Kolko called the 20th century "the bloodiest in all history." US waged new millennium wars match their ferocity.
Genocidal by any standard. Killing millions. Willfully targeting civilians. Raging in multiple theaters.
On Christmas like every other day. Enriching war profiteers more than ever. Mass slaughter and destruction are good for business.
Benefitting bottom line priorities hugely. Millions of lost lives don't matter. A small price to pay. Calls for turning swords into ploughshares go unheeded.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Christ said: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the sons of God."
What would he tell Obama today? A war criminal multiple times over. Waging wars at home and abroad. It bears repeating. On Christmas like every other day.
Obsessed with war. Responsible for horrific human misery. Targeting all countries not in lockstep with Washington rules.
Another MH17 Cover-Up: Hiding a Key Autopsy
Eric Zuesse
Decisive evidence as to how the July 17th shooting-down of the MH17 Malaysian airliner occurred is being hidden by the four-nation team that’s doing the official ‘investigation’ into the plane-downing incident.
This decisive evidence is the coroner’s report on the corpse of the airliner’s pilot. If the pilot was killed by bullets, then the standard ‘explanation’ of the downing (that the plane was downed by a ground-fired missile) isn’t just false, it’s an outright hoax. So: where’s the pilot’s autopsy?
This investigation is important because stringent economic sanctions against Russia were instituted immediately after the downing; these sanctions were based upon never-substantiated charges from the Ukrainian Government, and from its sponsor the U.S. Government, alleging that the plane had been downed by rebels who were supported by Russia. (The “Buk” missile launcher charged by Ukraine as the cause was actually manned by Ukraine’s soldiers.)
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