The Ruthless Truth blog

NEW BOOK FROM GLOBAL RESEARCH: The Global Economic Crisis

The Great Depression of the XXI Century

- by Michel Chossudovsky, Andrew Gavin Marshall – 2010-05-25

Award Winning Movie: "SUPERPOWER":

Order the DVD Online from Global Research

- by Barbara-Anne Steegmuller – 2010-05-20

Understanding Deep Politics Conference: May 14 – 16, Santa Cruz, CA

The Driving Forces Behind World Events

- 2010-05-16

Become a Global Research Member: Receive a FREE COPY of The Global Economic Crisis

- 2010-05-10

Moscow Calls for Nuclear-Free Middle East

- 2010-05-05

Pentagon Reveals Secret: U.S. Has 5,113 Nuclear Warheads

- 2010-05-05

The Fed Must Be Audited: The Fraudulent Practices of the Federal Reserve

- by Washington’s Blog – 2010-05-05

The "Evil Guys List"? "Free Journalism" in the Service of US Foreign Policy

The Role of Reporters without Borders

- by F. William Engdahl – 2010-05-05

Encroachment of Free Speech on 9/11

University of Quebec Staff Denounce 9/11 Truthers Speech

- 2010-05-05

The New Prison Industrial-Complex

State Budgets and Technology in the Age of Declining State Revenue

- by Paul C. Wright – 2010-05-05

Colombia: State Terror in the Name of Peace

- by James Petras – 2010-05-05

Greece: Poverty and Social Implosion in the Wake of the Financial Bailout

- by Finian Cunningham – 2010-05-05

GM Biofuels: Another Planned Disaster

- by Rady Ananda – 2010-05-05

The Nuclear Bomb is a Fire against Humanity rather than a Weapon for Defense

Full Statement at the UN Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference

- by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – 2010-05-04

Covert Economic Agenda Beneath Immigration Reform

- by Shamus Cooke – 2010-05-04

NATO and Beyond: The "Wars of the Future"

- by Ellen Ray , Bill Schaap – 2010-05-04

Israel’s Stasi Watch Over Imams

Islamic posts filled by secret police

- by Jonathan Cook – 2010-05-04

Who is a Threat to World Peace? The Declared Nuclear Powers, America, Britain and France Defeated by the Power of Reason

- by Finian Cunningham – 2010-05-04

US Threatens to Nuke Iran and Anyone Else it Feels like Nuking.

Iran and the NPT

- by Shirin Ebadi – 2010-05-03

The Criminalization of Wall Street: Will Any Exec at Goldman Sachs Go to Jail?

- by Danny Schechter – 2010-05-03

Hollywood and The Rigging of Financial Markets

Betting on the Gross Profits of Upcoming Movies

- by Ellen Brown – 2010-05-03

The Fiction of Freedom in America: The "American Dream" of Social Inequality, Discrimination and Poverty

- by Vi Ransel – 2010-05-03

Israel Program to Deport Palestinians

- by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East – 2010-05-03

Obama’s Threat to Launch a Nuclear Attack on Iran

- by Prof. Rodrigue Tremblay – 2010-05-03

Hedge Funds and Equity Firms in India Invest in Microfinance: Profiting from The Poor

- by Kavaljit Singh – 2010-05-03

Military Dominance: Obama’s Fake Nuclear Disarmament Initiative allows the U.S. to Assert its Global Military Hegemony

- by Vladimir Radyuhin – 2010-05-03

Is Obama a Wall Street Puppet?

Fight the Derivatives Cancer with a Wall Street Sales Tax, Bans on Hedge Funds and Credit Default Swaps

- by Webster G. Tarpley – 2010-05-03

Barack Obama Flies to Louisiana as BP’s Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Spreads

BP analysis of environmental impact on Gulf coast had warned of risks to beaches but said oil spill was virtually impossible

- by Ed Pikington – 2010-05-03

May Day Protests Held Across Europe

- 2010-05-03

Lawsuit Alleges Rwandan President Triggered Rwanda Genocide

- by Ann Garrison – 2010-05-03

High-Tech Death from Above: U.S. Drone Wars Fuel War Crimes

- by Tom Burghardt – 2010-05-03

Media Coverup on the Corporate Pillage and Destruction of sub-Saharan Africa

- by Dr. P. Wilkinson – 2010-05-02

Global Financial Conflagration: The World of Fiat Money is Buckling under the Pressure of Unpayable Debts

- by Bob Chapman – 2010-05-02

Secretive Group of International Bankers to form a World Government?

- by Paul Joseph Watson – 2010-05-02

A Tradition of Dehumanizing: The CIA’s Psycho-War and Torture Schemes in The Philippines

Extrajudicial killings, beatings, mental torture, abductions

- by Prof. E. San Juan Jr. – 2010-05-02

Food Security: Gates Foundation, US Treasury and World Bank to the Rescue of Small Farmers

- by Eli Clifton – 2010-05-02

France Implicated in Hariri Murder Case

- 2010-05-02

Pentagon Paints Bleak Picture of Afghanistan War as More Civilians Die

- by Bill Van Auken – 2010-05-02

Britain’s Election: Welcome to No Choice Democracy

- by Finian Cunningham – 2010-05-02

Dear Readers. We Need Your Support. Donate to Global Research

- 2010-05-02

Iraq: Bloody Policies and Criminal Authorities: Arrests, Assassinations, Deportation of Millions, Torture

Appeal to Stop Repression and State Crimes in Iraq

- by The BRussells Tribunal – 2010-05-01

The Insiduous Role of the Atlantic Council: Securing The 21st Century For NATO

Washington controls NATO

- by Rick Rozoff – 2010-05-01

What You Need to Know About May Day

- by Prof. Leo Panitch – 2010-05-01

Celebrating and Struggling This May Day: The Long, Hard Haul at the Vale Inco Strike

- by Bryan Evans, Greg Albo – 2010-05-01

Parliamentary Democracy: A Triumph of Victorian Engineering

- by William Bowles – 2010-05-01

Biological Warfare: Priority to Bioweapons Research over Public Health

- by Sherwood Ross – 2010-05-01

News from Venezuela in English, Correo del Orinoco, April 30, 2010

- 2010-05-01

Syria Accuses UN of Intervening in Its Internal Affairs

- 2010-05-01

Hidden Toll of US Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq: “Surge” in Military Suicides

18 Veterans Commit Suicide Daily

- by Bill Van Auken – 2010-05-01

World Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth: Indigenous People’s Declaration

Mother Earth can live without us, but we can’t live without her

- 2010-04-30

Concealing Financial Data: "keeping all the relevant information" pertaining to Ponzi operator Madoff secret

- by Sherwood Ross – 2010-04-30

If We Broke Up Standard Oil, We Can Break Up the Giant Banks

- by Washington’s Blog – 2010-04-30

The Canadian Economic Austerity Model

- by Andrew Jackson – 2010-04-30

Haiti: What We Need is Solidarity, Not Charity

Interview With Haiti Union Leader Dukens Raphael

- by Dukens Raphael – 2010-04-30

Did Osama bin Laden Confess to the 9/11 Attacks, and Did He Die, in 2001?

- by Prof David Ray Griffin – 2010-04-30

How Wars Are Born: China versus the U.S.

Beijing Challenges American Expansionism

- by Shamus Cooke – 2010-04-30

Israel’s Dog and Pony Show

- by Sherine Tadros – 2010-04-30

What’s At Stake in the Issue of Iran

- by Noam Chomsky – 2010-04-30

Empower The People

Open Letter to Obama

- by Ralph Nader – 2010-04-29

VIDEO: Debt Crisis in Greece. It Could Happen in America

Will there be a ripple effect from Greece’s economic crisis?

- by Andrew Gavin Marshall – 2010-04-29

How the Western Media Promotes a Mistaken View of the World

- by Ramzy Baroud – 2010-04-29

War with China? The Dangers of a Global Conflagration

Rising and Declining Economic Powers: The Sino-US Conflict Deepens

- by Prof James Petras – 2010-04-29

Rising and Declining Economic Powers: The Sino-US Conflict Deepens

Banks Bailed Out By American Taxpayers

They are Paying Us Back By Shorting Our States and Cities

- by Washington’s Blog – 2010-04-29

Japan’s First Overseas Base Aimed at Expanding Military Boundaries

- by Yu Zhixiao – 2010-04-29

Freeing the World from the Threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction

One Billion Reasons to Disarm the Planet

- by Badriya Khan – 2010-04-29

US War Crimes Exposed: Revelations of an American Soldier

- by Finian Cunningham – 2010-04-29

Global Warfare: U.S. Consolidates Military Network In Asia-Pacific Region

- by Rick Rozoff – 2010-04-29

GlobalResearch.ca – Centre for Research on Globalization

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EU agrees $146bn bailout for Greece

The European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have agreed a $146.2bn bailout package over three years to rescue Greece’s indebted economy.

Leaked report: Government fears Deepwater Horizon well could become unchecked gusher

A confidential government report on the unfolding spill disaster in the Gulf makes clear the Coast Guard now fears the well could become an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.

Third of U.S. Bee Colonies Did Not Survive the Winter

Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe The world may be on the brink of biological disaster after news that a third of US bee colonies did not survive the winter

DynCorp Running “Counter-Narcotics” Missions Along Pakistan/Afghanistan Border

Sophisticated Counterfeiting Operation Run Out of Apartment Facing Federal Reserve Building in Los Angeles

Oil Slickonomics

Three scenarios lie ahead. They rank as bad, worse, and ugliest (the latter being catastrophic and unprecedented). There is no “good” here.

Analysis of 40-year-old tape may reveal whether Ohio Guardsmen were ordered to fire on Kent State protesters

Radical tax on debt put to UK parties

Households should pay a new tax on every pound of debt they owe, according to one of Britain’s leading economists.

Official In Charge of Responding to the Oil Spill Was Official In Charge of Responding to Hurricane Katrina

‘Back from dead’ Pakistan Taliban leader threatens US cities

China May ‘Crash’ in Next 9 to 12 Months, Faber Says

Investor Marc Faber said China’s economy will slow and possibly “crash” within a year as declines in stock and commodity prices signal the nation’s property bubble is set to burst.

New government pay-for-performance policies punish doctors who care for obese patients

Pay-for-performance reimbursement of surgeons, intended to reward doctors and hospitals for good patient outcomes, may instead be creating financial incentives for discriminating against obese patients, who are much more likely to suffer expensive complications after even the most routine surgeries, according to new Johns Hopkins research.

RFID tags help cows teats to tweet

Just when I thought Twitter could not possibly become any more ridiculous or meaningless, someone had to go and figure out a way.

LockMart Demos Future Of Net-Enabled Warfare At JEFX 10

Lockheed Martin’s participation, under the sponsorship of Air Combat Command, centered on the potential benefits of Internet Protocol (IP)-based applications in an irregular warfare context while conducting close air support (CAS) missions. Lockheed Martin’s efforts tied in with Air Force Special Operations Command enhanced capabilities in an integrated operational thread.

China May ‘Crash’ in Next 9 to 12 Months, Faber Says

Investor Marc Faber said China’s economy will slow and possibly “crash” within a year as declines in stock and commodity prices signal the nation’s property bubble is set to burst.

The rise of the robo-fighters: Britain’s new pilotless air force

The Mantis can fly for 24 hours without refuelling, do the surveillance job of four helicopters, acquire its own enemy targets and deliver a deadly payload – all without a pilot and crew. But should we be afraid of Britain’s new robotic air force?

Cash-strapped Fresno police enlist volunteers

Der Kommissar? Attention, Columbo-wannabes. Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer wants to hear from you — if you’ll work for free.

Rain-making lasers could trigger showers on demand

Lasers that stimulate condensation may help to induce rain artificially.

How Charles Darwin’s family paid the price of inbreeding

He is the father of evolution, whose discoveries revolutionised our understanding of genetics. But even Charles Darwin was not exempt from the vagaries of DNA.

U.S. Army officer is Afghan ‘king’

In the U.S. Army, Casey Thoreen is just a 30-year-old captain. Around here, he’s known as the "King of Maiwand" district — testimony to the fact that without the young captain and a fat international wallet, local government here as in much of the insurgency-ravaged south could not function at all.

UPDATE: NY police confirm car bomb caused Times Sq. evacuation

"This appears to be a car bomb that the bomb squad is in the process of dismantling," police spokesman Paul Browne said. "We do not know the motive."

Greece erupts as men from IMF prepare to wield axe

MAY DAY protests in Greece turned violent yesterday as youths in gas masks and hoods set fire to vehicles, smashed shop fronts and threw molotov cocktails and rocks at police in an explosion of fury over austerity measures they claim will hurt only the poor.

SPILL SPREADS OUT OF CONTROL

Costly IRS Mandate Slipped into Health Bill

Most people know about the individual mandate in the new health care bill, but the bill contained another mandate that could be far more costly.

Scandal: Obama, Gore, Goldman, Joyce Foundation CCX partners to fleece USA

The Goldman suit is a put up job!

• William C. Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; was a partner and managing director at Goldman

• Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; spent 18 years at Goldman

• Mark Patterson, chief of staff to Tim Geithner; former Goldman lobbyist

• Philip Murphy; nominated for ambassador to Germany; former Goldman executive

• Diana Farrell; deputy director of the National Economic Council; formerly with Goldman

• Emil Michael; White House fellow; former investment banker with Goldman

If We Broke Up Standard Oil, We Can Break Up the Giant Banks

We broke up Standard Oil, we broke up AT&T, we broke up the accountants, too. A lot of the changes we’re talking about, the mergers, are just new. When you look at the reasons these banks are so big — and you know how big they are — remember the reason JP Morgan Chase is so big is because they bought Washington Mutual when it was in trouble

Second rig overturns in Gulf of Mexico

Fears that oil slick will get worse after coastguards said a second rig has overturned in the Gulf of Mexico. It will hamper efforts to clear up oil from a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico which is starting to ooze ashore in the southeastern US, threatening birds and other wildlife along fragile islands and barrier marshes and putting one of the world’s richest seafood grounds in peril.

VIDEO: Fox News Makes Excuse for CIA’s Afghan Opium Cultivation

European Central Bank President Favors Global Governance

The President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, told Forbes that global governance is extremely necessary if we want to prevent another financial crisis.

Census workers get ready for door-to-door count

When census enumerators set out this Saturday, they could encounter a range of responses at the 48 million addresses they need to check.

American Meat Infused with Heavy Metals, Veterinary Medications, Agricultural Pesticides

The report is full of bad news about the ineffectual attempts that are being made to keep chemical residues out of the food supply, but optimists might point to the report’s tone as a sliver of good news. The report is sharply critical of the efforts to keep our meat free of chemical residues, and shows determination to shore up this gaping hole in food safety.

Greece caves in to austerity program

Social unrest flares in Athens: Police, protesters clash amid demonstrations against IMF cutbacks.

Obama Administration Gives Priority to Bioweapons Research

The priorities of the National Institutes of Health(NIH) in the area of bacteriology have been “catastrophically re-ordered” by emphasizing bioweapons research over non-bioweapons research, a prominent authority states.

Pentagon Confirms It Gave $1.4 Billion in No-Bid Fuel Contracts to Mysterious Companies

Police And Prosecutors Offices Stealing Assets Across America To Pay State Debt

It’s called policing for profit and it’s happening all across America.

Big Problems With Who Should Regulate

Goldman Sachs Staff surf porn regularly, Greek crisis explains why gold is better, Fed getting too much power over peoples financial lives, bad financial instruments will remain untouched, public fury against the Fed and Wall Street, vast ponzis still in play in the market, Wall st may still be looting the public…

New ‘black box’ plan for US cars

New cars and lorries would be required to carry black boxes to record crash information and manufacturers would help fund the US government’s motor industry safety agency, under a series of proposals following Toyota’s massive recalls.

Levin: SWAT Team Response To Oil Spill Is Government Takeover Plot

Former Reagan advisor suggests Obama is greasing the skids for nationalization of the oil industry

Oil Slick: Pentagon Approves Chemical Plan

Interesting Note: Cameron, which supplied the blowout preventer for the rig, said Thursday it was insured for $500 million of liability, if needed. Halliburton said it did a variety of work on the rig and was assisting with the investigation. Read More Here…

Dick Fuld’s Perjury

Fuld’s in a lot of legal jeopardy already, of course. But we’re still waiting for a villain from this crisis to end up in jail. Is there any chance, do you think, that an aggressive attorney general somewhere might launch a criminal prosecution for perjury?

Goldman may face Justice Department review

The Securities and Exchange Commission has referred its investigation of Goldman Sachs to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution, less than two weeks after filing a civil securities fraud case against the firm, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Dems spark alarm with call for national ID card

A plan by Senate Democratic leaders to reform the nation’s immigration laws ran into strong opposition from civil liberties defenders before lawmakers even unveiled it Thursday.

Bailout Bill Would Require Banks to Track and Report Personal Checking Accounts to Feds

ISI behind Frenchmen death?

The assassination of 11 French engineers in a bomb blast in Karachi in 2002 may not be the work of Islamist terrorists, as alleged these past years, but an act of retaliation carried out by Pakistan’s army and Inter-Services Intelligence in response to the French State’s failure to pay Pakistani officials $33 million in promised kickbacks for a €1.8-billion contract for the purchase of Agosta submarines in 1994.

Food and water drive Africa land grab

Rich Arab states such as Saudi Arabia have bought huge tracts of land across Africa in recent years in a bid to combat global food shortages, water scarcity and desertification and feed their burgeoning populations.

Private water suppliers poised to grow as demand set to surge

Global Water Intelligence analysts expect the water supply market to grow about 20% in the next five years

Cub Scouts Give Up Entirely, Offer Video Game Badge

Just sad and pathetic.

Forget Viagra, scientists develop what women REALLY want, a spray to make their men cuddle more

Parents recount flu jab nightmare

Related: GlaxoSmithKline profits climb on healthy sales of swine flu vaccine

Flashback: Police Brutality at 2003 Free Trade Area of the Americas Summit in Miami

Toronto’s G-20 “Free Speech” Zone

The park is located roughly 2 kilometres away on Queen Street.

Obama’s Shadow Government

The bulk of the president’s czars are exempt from oversight

Global Warfare: U.S. Consolidates Military Network In Asia-Pacific Region

The U.S. has mutual defense treaties with six nations in the Asia-Pacific area: Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand. The Pentagon has bases in Japan and South Korea, troops and base camps in the Philippines, satellite surveillance sites in Australia and the use of air bases in Thailand.

Facebook Credits: The World’s First Major Virtual Currency?

Creating a new virtual economy is a pretty big deal too, but Credits, which allow people to buy units of a virtual currency that can then be spent on various applications across Facebook, remained in the background. That’s because the program is still in private beta — independent payment companies control most of the $1 billion virtual goods market.

CDC: Almost half U.S. population suffers from serious illnesses

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has new data about the state of our health, and it’s not good.

Goldman Sachs adds to its ranks of lobbyists

GOP candidate’s ‘microchip an illegal’ comment draws outrage

During a Republican forum in Tama County, 3rd District candidate Pat Bertroche said police should catch illegal immigrants and document their whereabouts with microchips, the Des Moines Register reported

Three-year-old boy arrested as suspected terrorist in France

Oklahoma Passes Bill Outlawing Militia Recruitment

Both groups were added in an amendment to Senate Bill 2018, which would increase the penalty for aiding or soliciting gang membership from one year in prison to five years in prison. It also would create a new crime for gang-related offenses as a condition of membership, with the penalty being five years in prison.

Banks Bailed Out By American Taxpayers Are Paying Us Back By Shorting Our States and Cities

Of course, bailing out the states and cities in the first place would have given more bang for the buck than throwing money at the giant banks, especially given that the Federal Reserve has intentionally created incentives to ensure that banks will not loan out money back into the economy.

20 Things You Will Need To Survive When The Economy Collapses And The Next Great Depression Begins

Today, millions of Americans say that they believe that the United States is on the verge of a major economic collapse and will soon be entering another Great Depression.

Coca Cultivation Rises In Colombia, U.N. Says

The amount of land devoted to production of coca, the leaf used to make cocaine, has grown at a dramatic pace in Colombia despite a huge American-funded… counter-drug program of aerial fumigation and aggressive interdiction, a U.N. agency said Wednesday.

Report: Violence In Afghanistan Up 90%

Violence in Afghanistan is up nearly 90 percent from this time last year, according to a new Pentagon report submitted to Congress Wednesday.

PTSD, infertility and other consequences of war

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and its effects on U.S. soldiers and their families is a ghastly story with no end. PTSD is, in large part, though, an entirely Pentagon, or American war machine, inflicted wound.

Tax outrage: U.S. taxpayers to send billions more towards Greek bailout

Where does it end? 100 billion? 1 trillion? 1 quadrillion? And yes America, this is your money, going to bail out Greece… Then Portugal… Then Ukraine….Then Dubai….Then Italy….Then Spain….Then Hungary….Then the Baltics…Then the UK….Then Japan… and by the time we have to bail ourselves out, there will be nothing left, except the Turbo Bernanke 3000 dry heaving with an empty ink cartridge and empty paper cart, while gold oz will be worth one quadrillion Benjamins (or is that Bernankes)

The Winners and Losers in the ‘Commodities New World Order’

In the "commodities new world order," commodity producers will be king.

Washington to use Armenian territory to attack Iran – Azerbaijani MP

Trichet Calls For Corrupt BIS To Boss Global Government In CFR Speech

ECB President tells insiders that secretive group of international bankers – responsible to no nation state – will become primary engine of world government

VIDEO: Humanoid Robot Mahru Mimics a Person’s Movements

North Korea Makes Major Troop Shift, Postures For Direct Attack

The North Korean military has recently altered its wartime contingency plans against South Korea to concentrate on attacking the Seoul metropolitan region, a military source said yesterday. South Korean commanders will meet next month to discuss the change and their response to it.

Spain downgraded, Europe debt crisis widens

Europe’s debt crisis mushroomed Wednesday as Spain saw its credit rating lowered, just as Germany sought to reassure nervous investors that Greece would not be allowed to go under, saying Berlin’s share of a key aid package could be approved in the next few days.

San Francisco’s toxic sludge is good for you!

San Francisco is the first city to have launched an aggressive public relations campaign to trick its citizens into thinking that the toxic sewage is an organic compost.

Is The CIA Behind Mexico’s Bloody Drug War?

Washington’s Merida Initiative–which provides $1.4 billion in aid to the Calderon administration to intensify military operations–has only made matters worse. The public’s demand for jobs, security and social programs, has been answered with check-points, crackdowns and state repression.

Megabanks: The Banking Oligarchy That Controls Assets Equivalent to 60% of America’s GNP

Eurozone edges closer to endgame as Greek contagion hits Portugal

The eurozone "lurched towards the endgame" yesterday as Standard & Poor’s finally relegated Greece’s sovereign credit rating to "junk" status, downgraded Portugal by two steps to A-, and the yields on Greek debt climbed beyond 15 per cent, a signal that the market regards a default as virtually certain.

GM Food… Feeding the Hungry or Population Control?

Around 75% percent of our processed foods contain some form of genetically modified ingredients.

’Debt Like Cancer’ Addressed by Obama Commission on U.S. Debt

“This debt is like a cancer; it’s a cancer that’s going to destroy our country from within,” said Erskine Bowles. Moody’s Investors Service has said it would consider cutting the government’s bond rating if the outlook doesn’t improve.

SEND IN THE DRONES: PREDATORS TO FLY ABOVE TEX-MEX BORDER

"Big Sis" declared that over the past 15 months, federal law enforcement initiatives have made the border more secure than in any other time in history, the SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS reports in Wednesday editions.

Raw Milk Crackdown

Germany, Australia back off of ‘binding’ carbon laws

Royal Dutch Shell profit surges 57%

Royal Dutch Shell on Wednesday reported a 57% climb in first-quarter profit, with the energy giant benefiting from a surge in oil and gas prices as well as improving production.

House and Senate Ramming Through Secret Bill Add-Ons to Block Supplements

Former Air Force Intelligence Specialist Claims to Have Bomb and Fake Passport Aboard Trans-Atlantic Flight

The father of a former Air Force intelligence specialist was left to wonder why his son went from leading a "squeaky clean" life to being accused of claiming he had explosives aboard a trans-Atlantic flight, forcing the jetliner and its passengers to spend the night in Bangor.

Banks Bet Against U.S. Cities, States

Amidst growing pessimism about the financial condition of U.S. cities and states, investors are increasingly buying financial instruments that essentially allow them to short sell – or bet against – cities and states, says a Wall Street Journal report.

Pentagon’s Mach 20 Glider Disappears, Whacking ‘Global Strike’ Plans

The Pentagon’s controversial plan to hit terrorists half a planet away suffered a setback this weekend, after an experimental hypersonic glider disappeared over the Pacific Ocean.

Pentagon: Boost Training With Computer-Troop Mind Meld

The Pentagon is looking to better train its troops — by scanning their minds as they play video games.

Military cancels nuclear attack test NLE

A government official involved in NLE planning said a new site could not be found. The official also said the Northern Command’s exercise plans for "cooping" — continuity of operations, during which commanders go to off-site locations — also had been scratched.

Ex-CIA official facing sex charge arrested in Va.

A former CIA station chief awaiting trial for the alleged sexual assault of an unconscious woman in Algiers has been arrested in Norfolk after failing to appear at a court hearing, city and federal authorities said Tuesday.

Doctors sterilise Uzbek women by stealth

WHEN her baby died soon after delivery, Gulbahor Zavidova, 28, a poor farmer’s wife, longed to be pregnant again. After months of trying she and her husband visited a doctor who told her she could never have another child because she had been sterilised.

When Empires Join Hands: Japanese Military Joins U.S. And NATO In Horn Of Africa

Police State Canada 2010 and the G20 Summit

he secretive meetings will be attended by world leaders, finance ministers, central bank governors, along with thousands of other delegates. It will be the largest security event in Canadian history exceeding the Vancouver Winter Olympics

America Is Losing Its Imperial Status, And Global Institutions Such As The IMF, G20 And BIS Are Filling The Void

Billionaire Nilekani Says India to Offer Poor $2 for Iris Scans

Billionaire Nandan Nilekani, who heads the government agency tasked with giving Indians a unique identity number, said the country will offer $2 to its poorest to compensate them for lost wages while they get iris scans.

Greek, Portuguese Bonds Drop as Downgrades Escalate Debt Crisis

Government bonds of the euro region’s most indebted nations slumped, led by the biggest drop for Greek two-year notes since at least 1998, as credit downgrades escalated Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis.

Chavez accuses US plane of `electronic warfare’

A day after saying he hopes to eventually cool tensions with Colombia, President Hugo Chavez charged that his neighbor recently allowed a U.S. military plane to carry out "electronic warfare" operations against Venezuela.

Special army unit ready to be deployed on American soil just before Nov. elections

In October of this year, one month prior to the November midterm elections, a special army unit known as ‘Consequence Management Response Force’ will be ready for deployment on American soil if so ordered by the President.

Police seize Gizmodo’s computers in iPhone probe

Police have seized computers and servers belonging to an editor of Gizmodo in an investigation that appears to stem from the gadget blog’s purchase of a lost Apple iPhone prototype.

Remember that ash cloud? It didn’t exist, says new evidence

Britain’s airspace was closed under false pretences, with satellite images revealing there was no doomsday volcanic ash cloud over the entire country.

GM Crops Go to US High Court, Environmental Laws on the Line

The case, Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms, revolves around an herbicide-resistant alfalfa, the planting of which has been banned in the U.S. since a federal court prohibited the multinational Monsanto from selling the seeds in 2007.

Hyperfast Missile to Hit Anywhere in an Hour

Obama’s interest in Prompt Global Strike (PGS), a nonnuclear weapons programme,

BlackListed News

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Parents recount flu jab nightmare

Related: GlaxoSmithKline profits climb on healthy sales of swine flu vaccine

Flashback: Police Brutality at 2003 Free Trade Area of the Americas Summit in Miami

Toronto’s G-20 “Free Speech” Zone

The park is located roughly 2 kilometres away on Queen Street.

Obama’s Shadow Government

The bulk of the president’s czars are exempt from oversight

Global Warfare: U.S. Consolidates Military Network In Asia-Pacific Region

The U.S. has mutual defense treaties with six nations in the Asia-Pacific area: Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand. The Pentagon has bases in Japan and South Korea, troops and base camps in the Philippines, satellite surveillance sites in Australia and the use of air bases in Thailand.

Facebook Credits: The World’s First Major Virtual Currency?

Creating a new virtual economy is a pretty big deal too, but Credits, which allow people to buy units of a virtual currency that can then be spent on various applications across Facebook, remained in the background. That’s because the program is still in private beta — independent payment companies control most of the $1 billion virtual goods market.

CDC: Almost half U.S. population suffers from serious illnesses

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has new data about the state of our health, and it’s not good.

Goldman Sachs adds to its ranks of lobbyists

GOP candidate’s ‘microchip an illegal’ comment draws outrage

During a Republican forum in Tama County, 3rd District candidate Pat Bertroche said police should catch illegal immigrants and document their whereabouts with microchips, the Des Moines Register reported

Three-year-old boy arrested as suspected terrorist in France

Oklahoma Passes Bill Outlawing Militia Recruitment

Both groups were added in an amendment to Senate Bill 2018, which would increase the penalty for aiding or soliciting gang membership from one year in prison to five years in prison. It also would create a new crime for gang-related offenses as a condition of membership, with the penalty being five years in prison.

Banks Bailed Out By American Taxpayers Are Paying Us Back By Shorting Our States and Cities

Of course, bailing out the states and cities in the first place would have given more bang for the buck than throwing money at the giant banks, especially given that the Federal Reserve has intentionally created incentives to ensure that banks will not loan out money back into the economy.

20 Things You Will Need To Survive When The Economy Collapses And The Next Great Depression Begins

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By F. William Engdahl, 4 March 2010

Microsoft founder and one of the world’s wealthiest men, Bill Gates, projects an image of a benign philanthropist using his billions via his (tax exempt) Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to tackle diseases, solve food shortages in Africa and alleviate poverty. In a recent conference in California, Gates reveals a less public agenda of his philanthropy―population reduction, otherwise known as eugenics.

Gates made his remarks to the invitation-only Long Beach, California TED2010 Conference, in a speech titled, “Innovating to Zero!.” Along with the scientifically absurd proposition of reducing manmade CO2 emissions worldwide to zero by 2050, approximately four and a half minutes into the talk, Gates declares, "First we got population. The world today has 6.8 billion people. That’s headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent."1 (author’s emphasis).

In plain English, one of the most powerful men in the world states clearly that he expects vaccines to be used to reduce population growth. When Bill Gates speaks about vaccines, he speaks with authority. In January 2010 at the elite Davos World Economic Forum, Gates announced his foundation would give $10 billion (circa €7.5 billion) over the next decade to develop and deliver new vaccines to children in the developing world.

The primary focus of his multi-billion dollar Gates Foundation is vaccinations, especially in Africa and other underdeveloped countries. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a founding member of the GAVI Alliance (Global Alliance for Vaccinations and Immunization) in partnership with the World Bank, WHO and the vaccine industry. The goal of GAVI is to vaccinate every newborn child in the developing world.2

Now that sounds like noble philanthropic work. The problem is that the vaccine industry has been repeatedly caught dumping dangerous―meaning unsafe because untested or proven harmful―vaccines onto unwitting Third World populations when they cannot get rid of the vaccines in the West.3 Some organizations have suggested that the true aim of the vaccinations is to make people sicker and even more susceptible to disease and premature death.4

Dumping toxins on the Third World

In the aftermath of the most recent unnecessary Pandemic declaration of a global H1N1 swine flu emergency, industrial countries were left sitting on hundreds of millions of doses of untested vaccines. They decided to get rid of the embarrassing leftover drugs by handing them over to the WHO which in turn plans to dump them for free on select poor countries. France has given 91 million of the 94 million doses the Sarkozy government bought from the pharma giants; Britain gave 55 million of its 60 million doses. The story for Germany and Norway is similar.5

As Dr. Thomas Jefferson, an epidemiologist with the Cochrane Research Center in Rome noted, “Why do they give the vaccines to the developing countries at all? The pandemic has been called off in most parts of the world. The greatest threat in poor countries right now is heart and circulatory diseases while the virus figures at the bottom of the list. What is the medical reason for donating 180 million doses?”6 As well, flu is a minor problem in countries with abundant sunshine, and it turned out that the feared H1N1 Pandemic “new great plague” was the mildest flu on record.

The pharmaceutical vaccine makers do not speak about the enormous health damage from infant vaccination including autism and numerous neuro-muscular deformities that have been traced back to the toxic adjuvants and preservatives used in most vaccines. Many vaccines, especially multi-dose vaccines that are made more cheaply for sale to the Third World, contain something called Thimerosal (Thiomersol in the EU), a compound (sodium ethylmercurithiosalicylate), containing some 50% mercury, used as a preservative.

In July 1999 the US’ National Vaccine Information Center declared in a press release that, "The cumulative effects of ingesting mercury can cause brain damage." The same month, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) alerted the public about the possible health effects associated with thimerosal-containing vaccines. They strongly recommended that thimerosal be removed from vaccines as soon as possible. Under the directive of the FDA Modernization Act of 1997, the Food and Drug Administration also determined that infants who received several thimerosal-containing vaccines may be receiving mercury exposure over and above the recommended federal guidelines.7

A new form of eugenics?

Gates’ interest in inducing population reduction among black and other minority populations is not new unfortunately. As I document in my book, Seeds of Destruction8, since the 1920’s the Rockefeller Foundation had funded the eugenics research in Germany through the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institutes in Berlin and Munich, including well into the Third Reich. They praised the forced sterilization of people by Hirtler Germany, and the Nazi ideas on race “purity.” It was John D. Rockefeller III, a life-long advocate of eugenics, who used his “tax free” foundation money to initiate the population reduction neo-Malthusian movement through his private Population Council in New York beginning in the 1950’s.

The idea of using vaccines to covertly reduce births in the Third World is also not new. Bill Gates’ good friend, David Rockefeller and his Rockefeller Foundation were involved as early as 1972 in a major project together with WHO and others to perfect another “new vaccine.”

The results of the WHO-Rockefeller project were put into mass application on human guinea pigs in the early 1990′s. The WHO oversaw massive vaccination campaigns against tetanus in Nicaragua, Mexico and the Philippines. Comite Pro Vida de Mexico, a Roman Catholic lay organization, became suspicious of the motives behind the WHO program and decided to test numerous vials of the vaccine and found them to contain human Chorionic Gonadotrophin, or hCG. That was a curious component for a vaccine designed to protect people against lock-jaw arising from infection with rusty nail wounds or other contact with certain bacteria found in soil. The tetanus disease was indeed, also rather rare. It was also curious because hCG was a natural hormone needed to maintain a pregnancy. However, when combined with a tetanus toxoid carrier, it stimulated formation of antibodies against hCG, rendering a woman incapable of maintaining a pregnancy, a form of concealed abortion. Similar reports of vaccines laced with hCG hormones came from the Philippines and Nicaragua.9

Gates’ ‘Gene Revolution in Africa’

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with David Rockefeller’s Rockefeller Foundation, the creators of the GMO biotechnology, are also financing a project called The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) headed by former UN chief, Kofi Annan. Accepting the role as AGRA head in June 2007 Annan expressed his “gratitude to the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and all others who support our African campaign.” The AGRA board is dominated by people from both the Gates’ and Rockefeller foundations.10

Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, Syngenta and other major GMO agribusiness giants are reported at the heart of AGRA, using it as a back-door to spread their patented GMO seeds across Africa under the deceptive label, ‘bio-technology,’ a euphemism for genetically engineered patented seeds. The person from the Gates Foundation responsible for its work with AGRA is Dr. Robert Horsch, a 25-year Monsanto GMO veteran who was on the team that developed Monsanto’s RoundUp Ready GMO technologies.  His job is reportedly to use Gates’ money to introduce GMO into Africa.11

To date South Africa is the only African country permitting legal planting of GMO crops. In 2003 Burkina Faso authorized GMO trials. In 2005 Kofi Annan’s Ghana drafted bio-safety legislation and key officials expressed their intentions to pursue research into GMO crops. AGRA is being used to create networks of “agro-dealers” across Africa, at first with no mention of GMO seeds or herbicides, in order to have the infrastructure in place to massively introduce GMO.12

GMO, glyphosate and population reduction

GMO crops have never been proven safe for human or animal consumption. Moreover, they are inherently genetically ‘unstable’ as they are an unnatural product of introducing a foreign bacteria such as Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt) or other material into the DNA of a given seed to change its traits. Perhaps equally dangerous are the ‘paired’ chemical herbicides sold as a mandatory part of a GMO contract, such as Monsanto’s Roundup, the most widely used such herbicide in the world. It contains highly toxic glyphosate compounds that have been independently tested and proven to exist in toxic concentrations in GMO applications far above that safe for humans or animals. Tests show that tiny amounts of glyphosate compounds would do damage to a human umbilical, embryonic and placental cells in a pregnant woman drinking the ground water near a GMO field.13

One long-standing project of the US Government has been to perfect a genetically-modified variety of corn, the diet staple in Mexico and many other Latin American countries. The corn has been field tested in tests financed by the US Department of Agriculture along with a small California bio-tech company named Epicyte. Announcing his success at a 2001 press conference, the president of Epicyte, Mitch Hein, pointing to his GMO corn plants, announced, “We have a hothouse filled with corn plants that make anti-sperm antibodies.”14

Hein explained that they had taken antibodies from women with a rare condition known as immune infertility, isolated the genes that regulated the manufacture of those infertility antibodies, and, using genetic engineering techniques, had inserted the genes into ordinary corn seeds used to produce corn plants. In this manner, in reality they produced a concealed contraceptive embedded in corn meant for human consumption. “Essentially, the antibodies are attracted to surface receptors on the sperm,” said Hein. “They latch on and make each sperm so heavy it cannot move forward. It just shakes about as if it was doing the lambada.”15 Hein claimed it was a possible solution to world “over-population.” The moral and ethical issues of feeding it to humans in Third World poor countries without their knowing it countries he left out of his remarks.

Spermicides hidden in GMO corn provided to starving Third World populations through the generosity of the Gates’ foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and Kofi Annan’s AGRA or vaccines that contain undisclosed sterilization agents are just two documented cases of using vaccines or GMO seeds to “reduce population.”

And the ‘Good Club’

Gates’ TED2010 speech on zero emissions and population reduction is consistent with a report that appeared in New York City’s ethnic media, Irish.Central.com in May 2009. According to the report, a secret meeting took place on May 5, 2009 at the home of Sir Paul Nurse, President of Rockefeller University, among some of the wealthiest people in America. Investment guru Warren Buffett who in 2006 decided to pool his $30 billion Buffett Foundation into the Gates foundation to create the world’s largest private foundation with some $60 billions of tax-free dollars was present. Banker David Rockefeller was the host.

The exclusive letter of invitation was signed by Gates, Rockefeller and Buffett. They decided to call themselves the “Good Club.” Also present was media czar Ted Turner, billionaire founder of CNN who stated in a 1996 interview for the Audubon nature magazine, where he said that a 95% reduction of world population to between 225-300 million would be “ideal.” In a 2008 interview at Philadelphia’s Temple University, Turner fine-tuned the number to 2 billion, a cut of more than 70% from today’s population. Even less elegantly than Gates, Turner stated, “we have too many people. That’s why we have global warming. We need less people using less stuff (sic).”16

Others attending this first meeting of the Good Club reportedly were: Eli Broad real estate billionaire, New York’s billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Wall Street billionaire and Council on Foreign Relations former head, Peter G. Peterson.

In addition, Julian H. Robertson, Jr., hedge-fund billionaire who worked with Soros attacking the currencies of Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and the Asian Tigen economies, precipitating the 1997-98 Asia Crisis. Also present at the first session of the Good Club was Patty Stonesifer, former chief executive of the Gates foundation, and John Morgridge of Cisco Systems. The group represented a combined fortune of more than $125 billion.17

According to reports apparently leaked by one of the attendees, the meeting was held in response to the global economic downturn and the numerous health and environmental crises that are plaguing the globe.

But the central theme and purpose of the secret Good Club meeting of the plutocrats was the priority concern posed by Bill Gates, namely, how to advance more effectively their agenda of birth control and global population reduction. In the talks a consensus reportedly emerged that they would “back a strategy in which population growth would be tackled as a potentially disastrous environmental, social and industrial threat.”18

Global Eugenics agenda

Gates and Buffett are major funders of global population reduction programs, as is Turner, whose UN Foundation was created to funnel $1 billion of his tax-free stock option earnings in AOL-Time-Warner into various birth reduction programs in the developing world.19 The programs in Africa and elsewhere are masked as philanthropy and providing health services for poor Africans. In reality they involve involuntary population sterilization via vaccination and other medicines that make women of child-bearing age infertile. The Gates Foundation, where Buffett deposited the bulk of his wealth two years ago, is also backing introduction of GMO seeds into Africa under the cloak of the Kofi Annan-led ‘Second Green Revolution’ in Africa. The introduction of GMO patented seeds in Africa to date has met with enormous indigenous resistance.

Health experts point out that were the intent of Gates really to improve the health and well-being of black Africans, the same hundreds of millions of dollars the Gates Foundation has invested in untested and unsafe vaccines could be used in providing minimal sanitary water and sewage systems. Vaccinating a child who then goes to drink feces-polluted river water is hardly healthy in any respect. But of course cleaning up the water and sewage systems of Africa would revolutionize the health conditions of the Continent.

Gates’ TED2010 comments about having new vaccines to reduce global population were obviously no off-the-cuff remark. For those who doubt, the presentation Gates made at the TED2009 annual gathering said almost exactly the same thing about reducing population to cut global warming. For the mighty and powerful of the Good Club, human beings seem to be a form of pollution equal to CO2.

1 Bill Gates, “Innovating to Zero!, speech to the TED2010 annual conference, Long Beach, California, February 18, 2010, accessed here

2 Telegraph.co.uk, Bill Gates makes $10 billion vaccine pledge, London Telegraph, January 29, 2010, accessed here

3 Louise Voller, Kristian Villesen, WHO Donates Millions of Doses of Surplus Medical Supplies to Developing countries,  Danish Information, 22 December 2009, accessed here

4 One is the Population Research Institute in Washington

5 Louise Voller et al, op. cit.

6 Ibid.

7 Noted in Vaccinations and Autism, accessed here

8 F. William Engdahl, Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation, Global Research, Montreal,  2007, pp. 79-84.

9 James A. Miller, Are New Vaccines Laced With Birth-Control Drugs?, HLI Reports, Human Life International, Gaithersburg, Maryland; June-July 1995.

10 Cited in F. William Engdahl, "Doomsday Seed Vault" in the Arctic: Bill Gates, Rockefeller and the GMO giants know something we don’t, Global Research, December 4, 2007, accessed here

11 Mariam Mayet, Africa’s Green Revolution rolls out the Gene Revolution, African Centre for Biosafety, ACB Briefing Paper No. 6/2009, Melville, South Africa, April 2009.

12 Ibid.

13 Nora Benachour and Gilles-Eric Seralini, Glyphosate Formulations Induce Apoptosis and Necrosis in Human Umbilical Embryonic, and Placental Cells, Chemical Research in Toxicology Journal, American Chemical Society, ,  (1), pp 97–105.

14 Robin McKie, GMO Corn Set to Stop Man Spreading His Seed, London, The Observer, 9 September 2001.

15 Ibid. McKie writes, “The pregnancy prevention plants are the handiwork of the San Diego biotechnology company Epicyte, where researchers have discovered a rare class of human antibodies that attack sperm…the company has created tiny horticultural factories that make contraceptives…Essentially, the antibodies are attracted to surface receptors on the sperm,” said Hein.  “They latch on and make each sperm so heavy it cannot move forward.  It  just shakes about as if it was doing the lambada.”

16 Ted Turner, cited along with youTube video of  Turner in Aaron Dykes, Ted Turner: World Needs a ‘Voluntary’ One-Child Policy for the Next Hundred Years, Jones Report.com, April 29, 2008.
Accessed here

17 John Harlow, Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation, London, The Sunday Times May 24, 2009. Accessed here

18 Ibid.

19 United Nations Foundation, Women and Population Program, accessed here

http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/Swine_Flu/Gates_Vaccines/gates_vaccines.html

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US military installations around the World

by Joan Roelofs

Global Research, February 20, 2010

Counterpunch – 2010-02-19

Despite United States economic weakness, although not unrelated to it, our military casts a heavy shadow everywhere on earth, far beyond the major and minor wars it is now conducting. The geographical and functional scope of the US military is cosmic. Formal alliances are an important element, but even such bloated, increasingly un-Atlantic and shockingly un-pacific institutions as NATO are only the tip of the iceberg. Nations generally regarded as “neutral” are now junior partners in NATO: Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Malta, and Sweden. “In June 2009, war games ‘Loyal Arrow’ were conducted by 10 countries in Northern Sweden, as a preliminary move to extend US and NATO military presence into Arctic regions—and confronting Russia in that area,” as reported by Rick Rozoff .

Other affiliates are the NATO Mediterranean dialogue states: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia, and guests invited to NATO events: Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea. Whether committed or just coffee dates, NATO nations are required to meet exacting standards. This means, in most cases, not only increased power for their military institutions, but also secret agreements that negate democracy. If our ally’s elected government  is military-skeptical, prime ministers and their parliamentary supporters may be kept uninformed of the NATO arrangements, as in the case of the nuclear weapons that were stationed in Greenland in violation of the Danish Constitution. The “normalization” of NATO, its penetration into the European Union, and its effect on civilian life (East and West Europe and Central Asia) are rarely examined.

Another wing of the US military is training, supplied to NATO partners and the military and civilian personnel of over 150 nations. The School of the Americas (now Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) at Fort Benning, GA, is notorious. However, there are 200 institutions in the US that train foreign military, and many overseas. Any nation that buys US military equipment—there are about 150 such countries–gets trainers with the deal.

The joint exercises with our Special Operations Forces are also “trainings” that provide mentors for foreign troops, so that we can insure “interoperability.”

The scope of operations blurs the distinction between military and civilian functions. Among the problems that may call for a military response, according to the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review are:

Rising demand for resources, rapid urbanization of littoral regions, the effects of climate change, the emergence of new strains of disease, and profound cultural and demographic tensions in several regions are just some of the trends whose complex interplay may spark or exacerbate future conflicts.

US military serves humanitarian missions everywhere, in disasters as well as routine social service needs. One of its functions, according to the QDR, is “preventing human suffering due to mass atrocities or large-scale natural disasters abroad.” It also tries to win the hearts and minds of the people by operating dental and pet care clinics. The modern missionaries discover the lay of the land, make friends with ambitious, intelligent locals, and rarely leave. All these interactions—alliances, partnerships, training, and humanitarian services– create “networking,” collegial relationships with current and future elites, both civilian and military. Then there are the bases.

The Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle Against U.S. Military Posts, edited by Catherine Lutz (N.Y.: NYU Press, 2009) is a fitting sequel to another excellent book, The Sun Never Sets: Confronting the Network of Foreign U.S. Military Bases, edited by Joseph Gerson and Bruce Birchard (Boston: AFSC/South End Press, 1991). Gerson and Cynthia Enloe are represented in both books.

Lutz is an anthropologist; many activists and anthropologists are contributors to this volume, which bodes well for information about what is really going on, in contrast to foreign policy experts who tell us mostly about elite opinion and their own ideological presuppositions. For information about the size, location, and real estate value of US military bases (domestic and foreign), one can look at the DOD Base Structure Report. This understates the number, omitting the bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the forthcoming one in Yemen. Also not listed are foreign bases that grant access rights to the US military. The 2009 BSR claimed 4,742 bases in the US, 121 in our territories, and 716 foreign. Some have estimated the foreign bases as nearer to 1,000, and the cost for those alone at around $250 billion annually.

The Lutz volume describes their effect on host countries and their people, and also reports the extensive activism protesting bases, some of which has been successful. For support and inspiration, there is an International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases . The current status of anti-base protests can be found on its web site. The anti-base movements have considerable leadership and participation by women, indigenous people, and racial minorities. Ironically, the US military has  promoted multicultural democracy in foreign lands.

Lutz tells us what people don’t like about the bases. First of all, there is the sovereignty issue. Status of Forces Agreements often provide that the host countries’ criminal and environmental laws will not be applied to US personnel and bases. Secret agreements, such as those allowing for the presence of nuclear weapons, bypass parliamentary institutions, laws, and constitutions. Aside from formal provisions, a foreign military occupation confers power over the politics and society of the host. Thus the 235 bases currently in Germany are not without function. They have helped to keep the population “in line” with the “American way.” In addition, as everywhere, there is an economic stimulus to the restaurant, entertainment, and real estate industries, filling in the gaps where war and the globalization of manufacturing and agriculture have hollowed out local economies.

Nevertheless, another reason for unhappiness is the purpose of the installations. They are used for making war, spying on other countries, torture, and other activities that violate the host countries’ laws and the will of their people. To moral and legal concerns must be added the potential for “blowback,” as bases may be targeted by nations resentful of being attacked.

Locals are angry at the taking of their land, which may be rendered unfit forever for agriculture or tourism. Vicenza, Italy is a UNESCO heritage city; a second massive military base is being constructed there despite a longstanding protest movement. In all cases, the environmental consequences of base construction and operation are grave for land, sea, and air. The constant noise of overflights, artillery fire, and bombing practice is also a cause for complaint.

A prostitution industry and violent crimes are common followers of base installations.

One of the best-known and vigorous protest movement, that of Okinawa, was catalyzed by the 1995 rape of a 12 year old girl and the US refusal to surrender the suspects to local authorities. However, all of the above reasons motivated the protests. In addition, many Okinawans consider themselves a colonized population of Japan, and resent the placement of 75% of the US Japanese bases on their territory.

The Bases of Empire contains detailed case studies of Latin America and the Caribbean, Iraq, and Diego Garcia; US nuclear weapons bases in Europe; and protest movements in the Philippines, Okinawa, and Turkey. Furthermore, it includes anti-base activism on US territory in Hawaii and Vieques, Puerto Rico, which has served as a worldwide inspiration. The afterword, by Julian Aguon, a Chamoru (indigenous person of Guam), protests that his people are becoming extinct. Filipino and Korean workers were brought to Guam to build the bases, which are now slated for massive enlargement. In addition, Chamorus serve and die in the US armed forces at a disproportionate rate.

The overall picture may be bleak, yet there are signs of hope. The anti-base movements have had some successes. The US military is creating a new basing system for strategic reasons;unpopularity is also a motivator.

As Rumsfeld announced in 2004:

Our first notion is that our troops should be located in places where they are wanted, welcomed, and needed. In some cases, the presence and activities of our forces grate on local populations and have become an irritant for host governments. The best example is our massive headquarters in some of the most valuable downtown real estate in South Korea’s capital city, Seoul – long a sore point for many South Koreans. Under our proposed changes, that headquarters will be dramatically reduced in size and moved to a location well south of the capital.

Now some of the “main operating bases” with permanent structures, family housing, etc., will be closed in favor of "forward operating sites" and “cooperative security locations,” often maintained by contractors to shield the principals from the gaze of the locals.

After many years of protest, spurred by prostitution and ensuing disease as well as the constitutional ban on nuclear weapons, the Philippines bases were closed. This success is somewhat countered by joint military exercises, ship visits, and Special Forces operations, but the activism has not ceased.

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa refused to extend the contract for the base at Manta, and it is closing. A major movement demands the end to all US bases in Latin America and the Caribbean, and deplores the US quest for new bases in Colombia. Although the Honduran request for the closure of the US base at Palmerola was not a success, it was a serious enough threat to trigger the overthrow squad. In Vieques, Puerto Rico, which was bombed for 180 days in a year, the protest began with environmental and health concerns, and was reinforced in 1999 when a security guard was killed by a stray bomb. Worldwide solidarity activists aided in the base closure, and the international movement continues today.

The environmental and political consequences of bases within the US are also worthy of investigation, yet one rarely sees comprehensive studies by journalists, social scientists, or activists. Political science and environmental studies textbooks mostly ignore them. At the very least, they represent another system of local government. The Military Toxics Project, which expressed serious concerns of military families and civilian base workers, has ceased for lack of funds. We are indebted to Catherine Lutz for authoring an earlier book on the impact of a domestic base: Homefront: A Military City and the American 20th Century (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002), a study of Fayetteville, NC, home of Fort Bragg. Her introduction asserts: “In an important sense, though, we all inhabit an army camp, mobilized to lend support to the permanent state of war readiness that has been with us since World War II.”

Joan Roelofs is Professor Emerita of Political Science, Keene State College, New Hampshire. She is the translator of Victor Considerant’s Principles of Socialism (Maisonneuve Press, 2006), and author of Foundations and Public Policy: The Mask of Pluralism (SUNY Press, 2003) and Greening Cities (Apex-Bootstrap Press, 1996). On her site is the outline of an adult education course on “The Military-Industrial Complex,” with images, citations, and links. Contact: joan.roelofs@myfairpoint.net

Global Research Articles by Joan Roelofs

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17723

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