SAVING SYRIA FROM CHEMICAL WEAPONS BY ‘PUNISHING’ WITH…. CHEMICAL WEAPONS
Revisiting “Red Lines”, by Felicity Arbuthnot 20/9/2013
I left the ward, leaned against a wall and prayed that the ground would open and swallow me. I wrote at the time, "I now know it is actually possible to die of shame."
- - Felicity Arbuthnot, Iraq, 1991
Crimes in Iraq – "As American as Apple Pie"
There must be more ignorance in the Western world than most thought, since surprise seems to be the dominant reaction to the appalling evidence of alleged gruesome, barbaric and inhuman treatment of Iraqi prisoners by United States troops and the mercenaries employed by them. The British largely appear unable to believe that "our boys" are capable of similar treatment towards detainees in their jurisdiction, in spite of graphic descriptions by The Independent's Robert Fisk. However, "our boys," with their American allies of the 1991 Coalition, buried young Iraqi conscripts alive in Iraq's southern desert.
Youthful Iraqis were simply bulldozed into trenches, according to a British Army chaplain in an interview with this writer. Other soldiers tell of playing football with the heads of the dead and taking "souvenir" photographs, standing on or by burned out Iraqi tanks and vehicles often with the near incinerated dead still inside.
Some are ashamed now, some are mentally unstable, unable to live with their actions, some committed suicide but they did these things on their own admission and of their own free will. War brings its own particular inhumanity and insanity. Perhaps the self evident lawlessness of an illegal invasion brings yet another dimension, one beyond shame and almost beyond comprehension. Is Abu Ghraib an "isolated incident"? Of course not! America is the country that brought the world the horrors of Guantanamo Bay.
- - Felicity Arbuthnot, Islamonline, 14th May 2004 Read further here…
“Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions.”
- - Frantz Fanon, 1961. (1925-1961)
Felicity Arbuthnot writes: Against all odds, given the circumstances, the Syrian government has, of Friday (20th September) sent an “initial declaration” of the country’s (arguably defensive) weapons to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. “The organization is looking at ways to fast-track moves to secure and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles and production facilities.” (1)
Putting aside the complexities of “fast-tracking” in a war zone, flooded with foreign and foreign backed, armed and financed insurgents, Syria is now, as Iraq and Libya before it, vulnerable to the massive attack threatened by John Kerry, Acting Enforcer for the current Nobel Laureate War-Monger-in-Chief, should he so choose.
“The threat of force is real”, said Kerry, speaking aside his other Master, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Israel after a hasty shuttle there last Sunday (15th September.). “We cannot have hollow words”, said Kerry, a man without peer in vacuous idiocies.
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The following day the UN produced the weapons inspectors report on the chemical attack in the Damascus suburbs on 21st August. Although the thirty eight page Report did not apportion blame and in spite of all the evidence to the contrary (news, websites) the Syrian government was deemed culprit. “It is the most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilians since Saddam Hussein used them in Halabja in 1988, and the worst use of weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century,” said UN Secretary General Ki-moon.
“The international community has a responsibility to ensure that chemical weapons never re-emerge as an instrument of warfare.” Talking to reporters the same day, Kerry pitched in with: ”… the military option is still on the table.”
However, a document, of August 2013, seems to show, despite official denials by the Obama administration, that the Syrian insurgents are capable of producing such poison gas. “The document (2) reveals that sarin was confiscated earlier this year from members of the Jabhat al-Nusra Front, the most influential of the rebel (fundamentalists) fighting in Syria.
It cites: “ … sarin from al-Qaida in Iraq had made its way into Turkey and that while some was seized, more could have been used in an attack last March on civilians and Syrian military troops in an artillery attack in the major Syrian city of Aleppo:
Moreover, Al Qaida in Iraq: “had produced a ‘bench-scale’ form of sarin in Iraq and then transferred it to Turkey where opposition forces, including Islamist militant foreign fighters had access to it. There’s apparently a large stockpile of sarin in Baghdad … Insurgents are using it to threaten the government there in order to get prisoners released.”
But blind eye turning in US war mongering is the order of the occasion – for both eyes. The US, of course is a collective veteran when it comes to the use of chemical weapons. The destroyed generations of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq, emerging in Libya, of Yugoslavia, with their cancers and unimaginable deformities are silent, ignored, decimated witnesses – and will be for generations to come. Now Syria is threatened with chemical weapons on a war crime defying scale.
On the September 11th, as America mourned its dead twelve years on, a near unnoticed, interminably delayed World Health Organisation Report was released into Iraq’s birth defects, cancers, and health anomalies linked to the country’s twenty year bombardment by the US and UK with Depleted Uranium – chemical and radioactive weaponry. White phosphorous and other yet to be identified “exotic” people and child exterminators were also used.
The UN-US Incorporated have done a shameful job of burying the staggering, horrific resultant health epidemic along with the bodies. As former UN Under Secretary General and UN Head in Iraq Hans von Sponeck has noted: “The US government sought to prevent WHO from surveying areas in southern Iraq where depleted uranium had been used and caused serious health and environmental dangers.”
His colleague Denis Halliday also former UN Head in Iraq and Under Secretary General Under commented:
“The World Health Organisation (WHO) has categorically refused in defiance of its own mandate to share evidence uncovered in Iraq that US military use of Depleted Uranium and other weapons have not only killed many civilians, but continue to result in the birth of deformed babies.”
See: “Cover-up of War Crimes in Iraq: When ‘Damning Evidence’ on Congenital Birth Defects becomes ‘No Clear Evidence’: Much-Delayed WHO Report” (3) a shaming, shocking, and comprehensive read of indeed, a cover-up of enormity.
Ironically, if Kerry has his way to “punish” the Syrian government and entire civilian population for its non use of chemical weapons, this latest Mesopotamian blitzkrieg to free Syria of a government whose “ sovereignty and territorial integrity” is “guaranteed” (lest we forget) by the same duplicitous UN, will be rained on by the same chemical and radioactive weapons which have brought genetic Armageddon to its previous nation victims.
Here are the assessments of Depleted Uranium, in the US Army’s very own words. This 1995 material is used, as when the scale of the decimation, the birth defects, the cancers, including amongst their own and allied troops, later Army assessments are more muted. The potential for being sued until the end of time no doubt weighs heavy at the Pentagon and the UK Ministry of Defence.
June 1995 “Health and Environmental Consequences of Depleted Uranium Use in the US Army”, (US) Army Environmental Policy Unit:
“If DU enters the body it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences.
The risks associated with DU are both chemical and radiological.” (p 101)
“No available technology can significantly change the inherent chemical and radiological toxicity of DU. These are intrinsic properties of uranium.” (p. xxii)
“DU is a … radioactive waste and therefore must be deposited in a licensed repository.” (p. 154) Not deposited on a church, mosque, school, hospital, home.
“Inhaled insoluble oxides stay in the lungs longer and pose a potential cancer risk due to radiation. Ingested DU dust can also pose both a radioactive and a toxicity risk …” (“Army Not Adequately Prepared to Deal with Depleted Uranium Contamination”, US General Accounting Office Report: GAO/NSIAD-93-90, January 1993, p. 14.)
“Health hazards occur primarily due to internal exposures. Soluble forms present chemical hazards primarily to the kidneys; insoluble forms present hazards to the lungs from ionizing radiation … Short term effects of high doses can result in death, while long terms effects of low doses have been implicated in cancer.” Science Applications International Report. Kinetic Energy Penetrators, Long Term Strategy Study, Danesi, July 1990 (SAIC, p. 4-12.)
A recent scientific study estimated that the earth has a life of 1.7 Billion Years. Depleted Uranium, of course, has a half-life of 4.5 Billion years.
Even in the litany of US crimes of enormity, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Agent Orange, Napalm, White Phosphorous, this has a particular place in infamy. A crime in which, it seems, the UN is both complicit and covering up.
RIP those great founding words of 26th June 1945 in San Francisco
“We the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and o promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours …” What a load of tosh.
Notes:
1. https://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/20/3639037/syria-sends-opcw-chemical-weapons.html#moreb
2. https://www.wnd.com/2013/09/kerrys-claim-about-assads-sarin-challenged/#biXRh76vQVsZLlFf.99
3. https://www.globalresearch.ca/coverup-of-war-crimes-in-iraq-when-damning-evidence-on-congenital-birth-defects-becomes-no-clear-evidence-much-delayed-who-report/5350439 Source: |
THE TROODOS CONUNDRUM
Craig Murray adds to the discussion of Obama’s push for war with Syria. Mr. Murray describes himself as ‘an author, broadcaster and human rights activist, was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010’. https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/08/the-troodos-conundrum/
His report of 31 August 2013 reads:
“The GCHQ listening post on Mount Troodos in Cyprus is arguably the most valued asset which the UK contributes to UK/US intelligence cooperation. The communications intercept agencies, GCHQ in the UK and NSA in the US, share all their intelligence reports (as do the CIA and MI6). Troodos is valued enormously by the NSA. It monitors all radio, satellite and microwave traffic across the Middle East, ranging from Egypt and Eastern Libya right through to the Caucasus. Even almost all landline telephone communication in this region is routed through microwave links at some stage, picked up on Troodos.
Troodos is highly effective – the jewel in the crown of British intelligence. Its capacity and efficiency, as well as its reach, is staggering. The US do not have their own comparable facility for the Middle East. I should state that I have actually been inside all of this facility and been fully briefed on its operations and capabilities, while I was head of the FCO Cyprus Section in the early 1990s. This is fact, not speculation.
It is therefore very strange, to say the least, that John Kerry claims to have access to communications intercepts of Syrian military and officials organising chemical weapons attacks, which intercepts were not available to the British Joint Intelligence Committee.
On one level the explanation is simple. The intercept evidence was provided to the USA by Mossad, according to my own well placed source in the Washington intelligence community. Intelligence provided by a third party is not automatically shared with the UK, and indeed Israel specifies it should not be.
But the inescapable question is this. Mossad have nothing comparable to the Troodos operation. The reported content of the conversations fits exactly with key tasking for Troodos, and would have tripped all the triggers. How can Troodos have missed this if Mossad got it? The only remote possibility is that all the conversations went on a purely landline route, on which Mossad have a physical wire tap, but that is very unlikely in a number of ways - not least nowadays the purely landline route.
Israel has repeatedly been involved in the Syrian civil war, carrying out a number of illegal bombings and missile strikes over many months. This absolutely illegal activity by Israel- which has killed a great many civilians, including children - has brought no condemnation at all from the West. Israel has now provided “intelligence” to the United States designed to allow the United States to join in with Israel’s bombing and missile campaign.
The answer to the Troodos Conundrum is simple. Troodos did not pick up the intercepts because they do not exist. Mossad fabricated them. John Kerry’s “evidence” is the shabbiest of tricks. More children may now be blown to pieces by massive American missile blasts. It is nothing to do with humanitarian intervention. It is, yet again, the USA acting at the behest of Israel.
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IS IT ONE STANDARD FOR AUSTRALIA, BUT ANOTHER FOR ISRAEL?
If not, please explain: Mark Leibler, national chairman of the Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council; has recently published “Stop the Ugly Politicking : This is a Matter of Life and Death,” (Sydney Morning Herald 3 August 2013).
In the interests of accuracy, here is the essence of the article:
“It chills me that we have come to a point where we are denying refugees reaching Australian waters any prospect of ever being settled in this country. When we demonise those who arrive by boat, we simply fuel fear in the community, leaving us all feeling helpless and confused, to say nothing of the mental health effects on the refugees concerned. To add to that, reports of conditions at various offshore processing centres, including Manus Island, are deeply disturbing. They require top-level investigation as a matter of urgency.
We are asked to judge which policy or slogan we prefer. Which policy is more likely to succeed in stopping the boats? These are the wrong questions.
It is time for our politicians to lead us out of this miasma. They should start by committing to remove this issue from the election campaign hothouse, and admitting that both sides of politics might have something to contribute to a more equitable and effective resolution.
I fear that by appealing to the basest instincts in our society Australians are being led into a dangerous void, filled by fear - in some cases, xenophobic - and vilification. Down this path lie vulnerable refugees fleeing persecution and, while deserving of our empathy, they are instead left degraded and dehumanised.
As a person of Jewish faith, I have long understood what racism does to people. It takes away your right to control your destiny or to make decisions for yourself. To stay or go becomes a matter of life or death.
My family will certainly never forget our debt to Australia in this regard. We found sanctuary here after racism in Europe condemned my maternal grandparents to being murdered at Auschwitz, and in 1939 drove my parents from Belgium and the Nazis to this country. We owe our freedom, prosperity and the very lives of our children and grandchildren to this great country - one of the most democratic on earth. Yet we know the reality is that racism can't simply be dismissed as belonging to another place or time.
Racism and its impacts on people's lives continue to cast a shadow in Australia. In my firm's recent representation of a group of young African Australians in their "racial profiling" action against Victoria Police, we witnessed first-hand the mental health effects of institutional racism - stress, fear, anxiety and depression, and poor self-worth, self-efficacy and self-esteem, all leading to suicidal thoughts.
Racism is even embedded in the very architecture of this country, with the "race power" and associated provisions in our nation's constitution. My own reconciliation journey has been enriched by learning from many indigenous Australians about their dignified struggles for justice, as they battle the impacts of racism in their daily lives.
It has been only through a politically bipartisan approach to reconciliation that we have achieved the apology and significant momentum towards securing the just recognition of indigenous Australians in our constitution, and the removal of racist provisions within it.
We clearly need to replicate the same bipartisanship in population and asylum-seeker policy.
The thing that most disturbs me about the current style of debate is the seeming incapacity of so many Australians to try "walking in the shoes" of those who arrive here seeking refuge from persecution. Surely it can't be that hard. For millions of Australians, that journey can simply begin by looking back into their own family's migrant story. Read further....
Do you get the picture? But there is no mention of Israel’s treatment of “African” migrants.
According to The Guardian 29 August 2013, Israel is planning on deporting, yes, over 50,000 migrants from Eritrea and the Sudan, back to Africa via Uganda because they are regarded as “illegal’s” and as The Guardian puts it Israel “largely rejects the position of human rights groups that many fled their countries in search of political asylum”.
The Israeli Interior Minister is quoted as saying that the Infiltrators” would be urged to “leave of their own free will”.
Once a deadline has been reached there would be no extensions on visas and laws would be enforced prohibiting “illegal migrants being employed”. Human rights groups say Israel has jailed hundreds of African migrants and taken other steps to get them to agree to leave the country.
The Guardian also says “A fortified fence along Israel’s border with Egypt’s Sinai has largely stemmed the flow of migrants, who walked across what was a porous frontier at a rate of up to 2,000 a month in 2011.”
Just in case one doesn’t like The Guardian, the same information, including the quote in the last paragraph occurs in a Reuters release, 29 August 2013
The story is covered earlier at Haaretz.com (August 27, 203) a leading Israeli news service. So, it’s true!
Thus: is it one standard for Australia, but another for Israel? Or do both countries have the right to decide who comes to their lands, and on what terms? Please explain.
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THE LIGHTS ARE ON - AND SOMEBODY’S HOME!
With each "clamping down on insurgents", there is another wave of awakening.
Russell Irwin, a WW2 veteran living in Orangeville Ontario, is taking a stand - and causing a big ripple in the process. Like many of us who are now clearly understanding the profound concerns and illegalities with "smart" digital surveillance meters, Russell feels enough is enough.
In any great social movement, there is always a stage where a core group feel compelled to consider more than just their own comfort - to be on the leading edge, taking on the brunt of a system bent on control.
Though millions worldwide are now asserting their rights, we've seen in the "smart" meter issue that several utilities have temporarily shut off power to a number of customers, and there have been a handful of arrests. However, the more people that get rooted in their stand, the faster the corruption is exposed and dissolved. In the end, truth coupled with conviction will trump all. As in one of our favourite films - "Serenity" - you can't stop the signal of awakening. - The TBYP Team (www.takebackyourpower.net)
Toronto War Vet’s Lights On – For Now!
Ironically, according to some law pundits, it might be that because of the fact that Russell is not paying his bill - and therefore not demonstrating any acceptance of the meter (by refusing to contract) - this could be the reason why Hydro One is not cutting his power. Whatever the case, Russell is all in, letting the chips land where they may - and history teaches us this is the single most important requirement for change.
War vet and Ontario smart meter opponent still has power, by Simon Kent,Toronto Sun News, 19 September 2013
“Ontario’s most famous opponent of Hydro One’s enforced smart meter installation program still has power. Russell Irwin’s family confirmed Wednesday that just hours after the deadline passed for the utility to cut electricity to the 91-year-old veteran’s Orangeville, Ont., property he was still on the grid. “Yes, the lights are still burning and he’s still angry,” son-in-law Dwayne Huxted said.
“We know that at any time the power could go so the generator is hooked up and ready. It’s a helluva stressful way to live, waiting for the power to be cut off, but that’s the way Hydro One plays it. They are a pretty brutal organization to go up against.”
Hydro One is empowered — pardon the pun — by the Ontario Ministry of Energy to refuse Irwin any opt-out of its smart meter program.
A ministry spokesman confirmed that Irwin’s old meter would not be returned and it is not a negotiable option.
“In 2004 the Ministry of Energy issued a Directive to the Ontario Energy Board (OEB), which directed the OEB to develop a plan to implement smart meters in the province,” the spokesman said. “It was decided that smart meters would be installed for all small businesses and residential consumers; larger volume consumers require a different kind of meter. Consumers are not able to opt out of smart metering.”
Ontario is very near the completion of that rollout with 4.7 million smart meters installed, representing 99% of eligible customers. The $1 billion-plus cost will be clawed back from users across the province with extra charges added to every billing cycle. Those charges will also support global computer giant IBM which earlier this year announced it had been selected to continue supporting the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to operate Ontario’s Meter Data Management and Repository (MDM/R) system with new computing infrastructure and an updated operating environment.
The five-year, $68.5-million contract was awarded following a competitive procurement process and includes options to extend to seven or 10 years. Whether that option occurs could depend on PC Leader Tim Hudak.
The PC Party of Ontario is meeting in London, Ont., this weekend and during the last election, Hudak called smart meters “a dumb idea” and promised to scrap the program he called just another tax. Hudak said too many families simply end up paying higher rates because they can’t shift their power-usage habits. “What I hear from families is they’re nothing more than tax machines,” Hudak said. This weekend is his chance to revisit those remarks.”
TAKE BACK YOUR POWER: Source:
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CANADA CALLING - CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION
Letter-to-the-Press re: Tyranny of Ontario Human Rights Commission & Nepean Redskins
The Editor, The Globe and Mail.
Dear Sir: Re:
“Ottawa football club agrees to drop Redskin name”(Globe and Mail, September 21, 2013).
Whatever use they might have served in the distant past, human rights commissions have outlived their purpose. They provide privileged minorities a tool to harass and blackmail the majority. In a move that may well cost $100,000, the Nepean Redskins will change their name.
One Ottawa Indian, musician Ian Campeau, found the name "offensive" and, when the team wouldn't budge, filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
It cost him nothing but a letter. The Commission will do the legal work for him. If he loses, he pays no costs or penalty.
From the get-go, all the costs are on the team. They must hire a lawyer, present a case, answer motions and correspondence and, eventually, appear before a tribunal.
Even if they win, they are out thousands, likely several tens of thousands of dollars. Human rights tribunal members are often highly biased in favour of minorities. They are part of the human rights industry.
The odds are stacked against the victims.
The threat of burying an amateur team for children with legal costs gives an unfair blackmail hammer to privileged minorities.
Your report notes:
“About 550 kids and volunteers run the flag, tackle, touch and cheer programmes with the club… It left the youth football club facing an expensive transition or a lengthy, high-profile legal battle.” (Globe and Mail, September 21, 2013)
The time has come to rid the province of this meddling and unfair institution. Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leader Tim Hudak promised to do just that when he was running for his party's leadership in 2009. So, too, did one of his rivals, and eventual ally in the final vote, MPP Randy Hillier.
Regrettably, as soon as he'd clutched the leadership prize, Hudak, apparently, heard from the Big Boys and shelved his promise.
It's time, in light of this latest outrage, for him to pledge himself to purging this Province of the bullying institution.
- - Signed: Paul Fromm, B.Ed, M.A. Director, Canadian Association for Free Expression |
WHAT A ‘COINCIDENCE’! IT’S THE SAME CHEAP-LABOUR POLICY
The following news item is from a Canadian colleague. The Canadian equivalent of Australia's 457 visa?
“Lots of Saskatchewan firms hiring temporary foreign workers,” CBC News, 9 September 2013.
The list of Saskatchewan companies applying to bring in temporary foreign workers continues to grow. Federal documents obtained by CBC News through an Access to Information request show there are now more than 3,000 companies in Saskatchewan that have asked for and received permission to hire foreign workers.
For example, temporary foreign workers have been hired at 430 Saskatchewan restaurants. The program was intended to help employers fill labour shortages in the short term, when there were no qualified Canadians. 'It isn't a proactive immigration policy. It's a cheap labour policy.'—SFL president Larry Hubich. However, the list of companies looking for foreign help keeps growing: hotels, construction, mining, retail and farm companies are all telling Ottawa they need outside help.
Larry Hubich, the president of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, says it's hard to believe no Saskatchewan people want these jobs. "There are over 350,000 people working in this country under temporary foreign worker program visas. And we've got hundreds of thousands of people who are unemployed. Those two don't match up for me."
Critics of the program question why Saskatchewan companies won't pay higher wages.
They say while bringing in cheap foreigners is a fix, it's not an effective one in the long term.
Liquor store worker rehired: Federal documents show Ottawa gave the green light to hire foreign workers at SaskPower, SaskTel and Saskatchewan Crop Insurance.
In some cases, it's foreign employees with specific technology skills. But Stephanie Choma, a spokeswoman at Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming, said a foreigner with a work permit was hired last summer to work in customer service in Regina. "In the initial hiring he was hired as a customer service worker in our liquor store, so those are people that stock shelves and help customers and run the tills. And then he actually changed into a different temporary job in our HR department," Choma said.
When the man's work permit expired, he was re-hired under the Temporary Foreign Worker program. It's not clear whether any Canadians were interviewed for that job. Wages at liquor board stores start at $16 per hour.
Province responds: Premier Brad Wall said foreign workers may help Saskatchewan grow, but government agencies need to make sure they "exhaust every possible avenue" before hiring them. "We need, and organizations including government need people to carry out these duties," Wall said. "I don't know about the specific numbers that are being asked for."
Wall says he's "looking into" the case of the Regina liquor store clerk who was rehired under the program when his work visa expired.
According to the Government of Saskatchewan's website, the August unemployment rate for that province was 5% -- better than the old days when Saskatchewan's major exports were wheat and people -- but by no means full employment. Restaurant jobs, hotels jobs, customer service at a provincial liquor store -- these are jobs Canadians won't do? Nonsense greedy employers simply want to pay substandard wages.
CBC readers have more common sense than the enabling politicians who have permitted this outrageous programme at a time of high unemployment. Asked to comment on the story, a solid 62.36% said: "Employers should be hiring Canadians first." Once again, it's time to put Canada and Canadians first!
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