5 March 2012
Update: It still makes fascinating reading all these years on; the machinations of people with immense power, able to shape events to their pleasing, and that of their class.
Compiled and Edited by William Bowles, December 22, 1988. This file is a compilation of texts that have either been uploaded to or posted on this system [New York On-Line] or Peacenet, which have been edited to remove duplication, and/or inaccuracies and irrelevancies.
5 March 2012 — Information Clearing House
Wikileaks
Bin Laden’s Body Taken To US: Stratfor
By The Journal
Secret emails sent by American based intelligence company Stratfor, give rise to growing speculation the US military did not dispose of Osama Bin Laden’s body at sea.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30718.htm
5 March 5th, 2012 — www.killinghope.org
“Defense lawyers say Manning was clearly a troubled young soldier whom the Army should never have deployed to Iraq or given access to classified material while he was stationed there … They say he was in emotional turmoil, partly because he was a gay soldier at a time when homosexuals were barred from serving openly in the U.S. armed forces.” (Associated Press, February 3)
5 March 2012 — RT
13 undercover French army officers seized in Syria
The Daily Star newspaper, Beirut, claims it received the information from a pro-Syrian Palestinian in Damascus.
4 March 2012 — Boiling Frogs
Rising Energy Tensions in the Aegean—Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria
The discovery in late 2010 of the huge natural gas bonanza off Israel’s Mediterranean shores triggered other neighboring countries to look more closely at their own waters. The results revealed that the entire eastern Mediterranean is swimming in huge untapped oil and gas reserves. That discovery is having enormous political, geopolitical as well as economic consequences. It well may have potential military consequences too.
Preliminary exploration has confirmed similarly impressive reserves of gas and oil in the waters off Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and potentially, Syria.
Greek ‘energy Sirtaki’
4 March 2012 — Boiling Frogs
In the midst of World War II, Saudi Arabia secured a position of enormous significance to the rising world power, America. With its oil reserves essentially untapped, the House of Saud became a strategic ally of immense importance, “a matter of national security, nourishing U.S. military might and enhancing the potentiality of postwar American hegemony.” Saudi Arabia welcomed the American interest as it sought to distance itself from its former imperial master, Britain, which it viewed with suspicion as the British established Hashemite kingdoms in the Middle East – the old rivals of the Saudis – in Jordan and Iraq.[1]
5 March 2012 — williambowles.info
TUMEKE!: What Wikileaks reveals about New Zealand
By Bomber
What Wikileaks reveals about New Zealand. The latest Wikileaks leak from corporate security advisor Stratfor is delicious reading for how their masters of the universe god complex becomes our reality. The contempt many regard our passive …
http://tumeke.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-wikileaks-reveals-about-new.html
4 March 2012 — Antiwar.com
Iraqi Sunnis Oppose Arming Rebel FightersIn the clearest sign yet that the Syrian Civil War is threatening to transform into an Iraq-style insurgency, Pentagon officials say that their data shows a dramatic increase in IED attacks by rebel forces.
The Pentagon’s report says the number of IED attacks is up 134% from December to January, though they insisted that the exact number of attacks is, for some inscrutable reason, classified.
The huge jump is something of a surprise, though it may just be the tip of the iceberg as a number of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) fighters have been pouring into Syria over the past few weeks, and IEDs have long been a weapon of choice for them.
While AQI has been eager to establish itself as a force in the internationally-backed Syrian rebel forces, many Iraqi Sunnis are opposed to sending arms to the rebels, saying they fear that doing so will just escalate the violence further and not lead to a resolution of the situation.
4 March 2012 — Joe Bageant
For those who prefer a real book rather than reading on a computer screen, a book with 25 of Joe Bageant‘s best essays is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Waltzing at the Doomsday Ball: The Best of Joe Bageant
Before he died one year ago, Joe and I had talked about such a book, even though he initially had doubts that people would pay for something that’s available for free on the web. But, many emails from his readers convinced Joe that enough people wanted the essays in book form to make the project worthwhile. After Joe died, Henry Rosenbloom, Joe’s friend and Australian publisher, asked me to select and edit essays for the book.
4 March 2012 — Prensa Latina
Syrian security forces have found US and Israeli-made weapons among the armaments seized to rebels in anti-insurgent operations, Syrian state media reported.
According to the media, sizable arms cache was found in rural Damascus, Hama and Idleb provinces.
In a farm in Douma, in rural Damascus, police and army forces found an arsenal with 200 assault rifles stored in five plastic containers.
Among the weapons were also US-made Laws or light anti-tank weapon, seven RPG rocket launchers, rifles, Israeli machine guns, DshK munitions boxes, infrared goggles, and backpacks, listed SANA news agency.
Four individual wanted for kidnapping, murder, and acts of intimidation were captured in that operation, while in Deir al-Asafir, also in rural Damascus various armed men accused of terrorist died, and others were arrested in a clash with security forces, said the source.
Meanwhile, in Hilfaya y Khattab, Hama central province, security forces staged combats with armed groups, killing and wounding some of the rebels, detaining others, and seizing weapons.
According to provincial command, two Syrian security troops died in the clash, and a third one was wounded.
4 March 2012 — Al-Akhba
Propaganda against the Syrian regime is not confined to the Saudi and Qatari Arab media. Western media have largely suspended their journalistic missions and have become willing transmitters of the claims, lies, rumors, fabrications, hoaxes, exaggerations, and stories of the Ikhwan-dominated Syrian opposition. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (and there are two organizations by that name) is the most oft cited source in Western media and no one knows how they collect their numbers. One of the directors of the observatory, Rami Abdulrahman, is the most quoted name about Syria although it has been revealed that a man by that name does not exist.
The New Dark Age 