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Aleppo, Istanbul, and London
Michael Collins
The war in Syria went from a seeming quagmire to a conflict that may reach a dramatic climax with the coming battle for Aleppo, a city of nearly three million people that was once the commercial center of the nation. Political leaders and events in two other cities, Istanbul and London, will play a central role in the outcome of the battle. (Image)
The Syrian Army finished off final rebel resistance in the city of Qusayr last week fighting alongside the Lebanese group Hezbollah. As a result, the rebel supply line from Lebanon is shut down and the major road from Damascus to Aleppo via Qusayr is open. The road will serve the supply line for an attack to end rebel occupation of half of that city.
A victory by the Syrian military in Operation Northern Storm, its name for the Aleppo effort, will leave the rebels with very little in the way of major influence or meaningful territory. From the start, the rebel strategy focused on urban warfare. The various groups would have little chance of survival in a conventional battle with the Syrian Army. With the shelter of cities and towns, the Syrian Army's advantage vanished allowing the rebels to carry on the conflict and prevail in key areas.
Genetic Weapons--Can Your DNA Kill You?
Janet C. Phelan
Activist Post
It is a scene out of a futuristic political thriller—the Secretary of State issues secret orders for embassy officials to collect the DNA of foreign heads of state while the President, speaking at a $1000 a plate dinner, is surrounded by a contingent of Secret Service agents wiping clean his drinking glasses and picking up stray hair follicles. They are not just protecting the President—they are protecting the President's DNA.
If this sounds like a script treatment for a Hollywood version of a Philip K. Dick novel, consider this: The Secretary of State's name is Hillary Clinton and her directives to embassies were uncovered in a 2010 WikiLeaks cable release. The President in this scenario is Barack Obama and the Secret Service unit pledged to protect his DNA is a group of Navy stewards, as revealed in the 2009 book by Ronald Kessler, entitled In the President's Secret Service.
America's Student Loan Racket: Stiffer Debt Bondage Coming
by Stephen Lendman
For growing numbers of American youths, higher education is increasingly out of reach. High tuition and fees make it unaffordable. So does a disturbing government/corporate partnership.
Millions of students need financial aid. They're exploited for profit. Providers are enriched. Higher education involves debt entrapment.
Students graduate tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Some post-graduates face burdens up to $100,000. If unpaid after 30 years, it's multiples higher. If default or declare bankruptcy, it's unforgiven. Bondage is permanent until repaid.
Loan providers thrive from defaults. Wages can be garnished. So can unemployment benefits, disability payments, tax refunds, as well as Social Security and other retirement benefits.
Mass Surveillance in America
by Stephen Lendman
It shouldn't surprise. It's longstanding policy. Post-9/11, it escalated. Previous articles said Big Brother is real. It's no longer fiction.
Mass surveillance is official US policy. It's not for national security. It's not about discovering terror or other threats. None whatever exist. Claiming otherwise doesn't wash. Big Lies substitute for vital truths.
What's ongoing reflects unchecked power. It's for unchallenged global dominance. It's secret with no oversight for good reason. It's unconstitutional. Societies governed this way are lawless. People living in them aren't free.America never was a democracy. It wasn't created to be one. It's not one now. Freedom is verboten. It's vanishing in plain sight. Wealth, power and privilege alone matter. Police state terror targets non-believers.
Bilderberg Conference Convenes
by Stephen Lendman
On June 5, the London Evening Standard headlined "No minutes, no press conferences - just the world's power brokers chewing the fat on the issues of the day. It's the Bilderberg conference - and it's coming to a suburb near you."
On June 6, it convened. It continues through June 9. It's a rite of spring. A previous article said British political economist Will Hutton calls attendees the "high priests of globalization."
Powerful movers and shakers have their own agenda. They're up to no good. They meet annually face-to-face. They conspire, collude and collaborate against populist interests. Their's alone matter.
Freedom in America: Rest in Peace
by Stephen Lendman
Political philosopher Montesquieu (1989 - 1755) once said:
"There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice."
International, constitutional and US statute laws no longer matter. Obama declared them null and void. He does so by disregarding them.
He consigned them to the dustbin of history. They've been heading there for years. Post-9/11, state terror accelerated.
Bush administration rogues enacted numerous police state laws. Previous articles discussed them. Constitutionality was ignored. Obama added his own. Doing so exceeded the worst of his predecessor's policies.
Unconstitutional US Data-Mining
by Stephen Lendman
On June 5, London's Guardian reported part of it. "NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily," it headlined.
On June 6, a follow-up article headlined "NSA taps in to systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and others, secret files reveal."
The Washington Post followed with its own report. It said the NSA and FBI "are tapping directly into the central servers of nine US Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to trace a person’s movements and contacts over time."
Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Paltalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple, and other online companies willingly cooperate with lawless government spying.
New York Times Editors Defend the Indefensible
by Stephen Lendman
It's standard Times practice. It's longstanding. On June 6, Times editors praised Obama's selection of Susan Rice and Samantha Power.
They're deplorable choices. They'll move from current capacities to new national security positions. More on that below.
Times editors endorsed what demands condemnation. What they say matters. Times articles, commentaries and editorials have impact. What's reported attracts global attention.
Longstanding Times policy is consistent. It operates as a quasi-official ministry of managed news misinformation. It masquerades as the real thing.
Doing so violates fundamental journalistic ethics. The Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics Preamble states:
There's a Reason They are Called “Courts....”
by Janet C. Phelan
Walking into any “court” of late one might have a distinct impression that one has walked into a monarch's domain. In our post- 911 America, it is becoming increasingly clear that the rule of law only applies at the discretion of the monarch. And that would be the judge sitting in that particular court.
Unlike removing a President, it is nearly impossible to remove a judge. Lifetime appointments in many cases coupled with laws prohibiting suing a judge (even for “malicious and corrupt practices”) have given the judiciary a nearly godly form of immunity.
A recent attempt in one of these courts....well, you can't really call them courts of law at this juncture, so let's call them courts of judicial privilege....to recuse the sitting probate judge in San Bernardino County could be seen as an example of the futility of exerting the rule of law today.
On March 26, 2013, Keith Phillips, the son of conservatee Russell Mack Phillips, attempted to recuse Judge Raymond Haight III on grounds that Haight had refused to rule on a petition for an evidentiary hearing filed by Keith Phillips on December 12, 2012. According to the Judicial Canons (that would be under the rule of law, not the rule of judicial privilege), a judge has a duty to rule. Over a hundred days had passed by and Judge Haight was simply ignoring the petition filed by Phillips.
Washington and the Breakdown of the Colombia-Venezuela -FARC Peace Process
James Petras
Introduction
Washington has devised a dual strategy toward Latin America. This involves a new set of ambitious imperial initiatives designed to undermine the principal anti-imperialist governments (Venezuela), social movements and armed insurgency (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), while dismantling Latin America-centered integration and regional alliances, such as ALBA, Petro-Caribe, UNASUR and MERCOSUR. At the same time the US seeks to establish an alternative US-centered ‘integration scheme’ through the Latin America and Asia-the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which encourages closer ties among neo-liberal states, like Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile with their energy and mining sector-dependent development strategies.
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