23 March 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation
Journalists Who Got Iraq Wrong 10 Years Ago and Syria Wrong Now Should Be Sacked
23.03.2013 | 10:48 | Wayne MADSEN
On the very day that America was reflecting on the preposterous reasons it attacked and occupied Iraq ten years ago – March 20, 2003 – CNN and other broadcasters were hyping a phony story about Syria using WMDs – weapons of mass destruction – against civilians. Ten years ago, Saddam Hussein was used as an international bogeyman for his possession of WMDs. However, the claims of Iraqi WMDs were based on false and forged intelligence. And the claims that Bashar al-Assad’s government is using chemical weapons are just as fallacious…
more
Obama Axes European BMD: Prospects for Russia-US Relations
23.03.2013 | 00:00 | Andrei AKULOV
On March 15 the United Stated made public its decision to cancel a key part of its Eastern European missile defense plan due to development problems and funding… US missile defence plans in Europe have been one of the touchiest subjects in US-Russian relations for years… The fact the US axed the fourth phase is certainly not the end of the controversy. The Russian officials never said the cancellation of the fourth phase is a solution…
Soccer Star Olli Rehn and the Gloomy Future of Cyprus
22.03.2013 | 00:00 | Igor ALEXEEV
On the outside the situation in Cyprus’s economy is a result of premediated public policy of the European Union, but behind-the-scenes one can clearly see subversive activity of eurocrats stooging for financial interests of the international stakeholders. Let’s keep an eye on the big picture and put Cyprus’s financial uprising in perspective. As the Romans asked: Cui prodest?..
The Return of Empires (VII)
21.03.2013 | 00:00 | Dmitry MININ
America’s tenacious desire to preserve its imperial status despite all the costs that come with it has a completely rational basis. America lost its position as world leader in the manufacture of material goods quite some time ago and for the most part exists thanks to its financial and technological intermediation and its virtual economy…The weakness of America’s material production is even predetermining the country’s need to preserve its intermediary status using military force and imperial methods. So it is turning out to be a catch-22. Imperial ambition is wearing the United States down, but without it, the US would be unable to maintain its established method of production…
Events in Xinjiang
21.03.2013 | 00:00 | Andrey ARESHEV
As the session of the National People’s Congress was being held in Beijing, conflicting reports were once again starting to come out of the Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region – a region situated in the northwest part of China which borders Central Asian post-Soviet republics and is populated, for the most part, by Muslims and members of other Turkic nations…
World Banking System to Give Up the Ghost
20.03.2013 | 06:44 | Valentin KATASONOV
The news about the Cyprus banks has been on the radar screen recently. Somehow, the most frequently asked question is what will Russian oligarchs do about it, because it’s them who have created an offshore world of their own there. Will they seek new offshore havens? Get the money back to Russia? Stay in Cyprus and adapt to the new realities of life on the island? In fact, the oligarchs and their money are an issue of minor importance. It all brings more serious things in focus, like, for instance, the future of world banking system that had became sick a long time ago. The Cyprus events produce evidence the system is at death’s door…
Britain and the EU, a crap shoot?
20.03.2013 | 00:00 | Rafe MAIR
What Britain has shown since it came into the Common Market, now the EU, on January 1, 1973 is an unwillingness to throw in its lot with Europe when it doesn’t suit them; whether its social policy or fiscal union, Britain has said “no thanks”. Does that mean the public will say “NO” to a referendum held in 2017 or before?
Two Years After Launching Intervention
19.03.2013 | 00:00 | Alexander MEZYAEV
The arms from Libya are spreading out across the whole continent. On December 16 the government announced the closure of borders with Algeria, Chad, Niger and Sudan. The southern areas of the country were declared “closed military zones”. By the way, Mali is not the only victim of arms supplies coming from Libya. The Darfur conflict may get sparked again: Sudan says the arms supplies to the rebels have significantly increased… The discussions on federal structure, or legal territorial dismemberment of the country, are in full swing. It is accompanied by religious hatred, mainly aimed at the country’s Christians , but not only. Sufi shrines are attacked more and more often…
US Civil War: Is It Possible?
18.03.2013 | 00:00 | Nikolai MALISHEVSKI
By the end of 2012, the New York Times published a sensational article called “Survive Societal Collapse in Suburbia”. It said Obama had already taken some steps to counter a massive civil war and incoming manifestation of totalitarianism. In these efforts he relies on a superagency – the Department of Homeland Security employing over 160 thousand people, having a budget measured in dozens of millions of dollars and supervising the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, tax services and other government bodies. It can operate beyond the US borders, allowed to arrest and physically neutralize, it boasts the whole army of informers and is given a carte-blanche for following the steps and hinder the activities of those, who are involved in subversive activities and considered to be the enemies of people by the US authorities…
Japan: US Asia Pivot Centerfield
18.03.2013 | 00:00 | Andrei AKULOV
The aggravation of tension in China-Japan relations is in focus of world media…This is the background against which the U.S. military ‘pivot’ to the region appears to be in full swing… In April 2012 the US and Japan signed a bilateral defense-cooperation agreement. It calls for strengthening interoperability between U.S. and Japanese forces and building permanent training facilities on Guam and in the nearby Northern Mariana Islands. Last August the U.S. and Japanese governments signed an agreement to deploy drones to monitor Chinese activity in the East China Sea. In November 2012 Washington and Tokyo conducted a 12-day joint military exercise involving some 37,000 Japanese and 10,000 U.S. military personnel… On March 13 Japan called for stronger security ties with Southeast Asia at the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Tokyo…While the world attention is diverted to the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific is becoming a volatile region with uncertain security prospects, where a spark could flare up a big fire in so many ways on so many days…
Self-Determination for Falklands but Nowhere Else in the Remaining British Empire
17.03.2013 | 07:29 | Wayne MADSEN
Britain is loudly proclaiming that the inhabitants of the Falkland Islands, the South Atlantic island group that is hotly contested between Britain and Argentina, voted 99.8 percent to remain an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. British Prime Minister David Cameron publicly rebuked the Argentine government and the new Pope, Francis I, for their support of Argentine sovereignty over the Falklands. As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio supported Argentina’s historical claim to the islands… So, while Mr. Cameron lectures the Pope and Argentina on respecting the wishes of the Falkland Islanders, he continues to run roughshod over the wishes of the peoples of the Turks and Caicos, Anguilla, the Chagos Archipelago, and even those closer to home in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, who would opt for independence if not for the heavy jackboot of British colonial rule…
Republishing is welcomed with reference to Strategic Culture Foundation on-line journal www.strategic-culture.org.
The New Dark Age 