14 June 2013 — Information Clearing House
Sarin Gas Use Doubted
Experts Don’t See Evidence
By Matthew Schofield
While the use of such a weapons is always possible, they’ve yet to see the telltale signs of a sarin gas attack, despite months of scrutiny.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35294.htm
White House Statement on Syrian Chemicals Weapons -Full Text
Statement by Ben Rhodes
Our intelligence community now has a high confidence assessment that chemical weapons have been used on a small scale by the Assad regime in Syria.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35287.htm
“Time For The American People To Wake Up”
Ron Paul on Obama’s Syria WMD Claim
Must Watch – Video
“The neocons are winning this battle here at home and they’re controlling our foreign policy” –
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35292.htm
Decision to Arm Syrian Rebels Was Reached Weeks Ago, U.S. Officials Say
By Karen DeYoung, Anne Gearan and Scott Wilson
Obama ordered officials in late April to begin planning what weaponry to send and how to deliver it.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35295.htm
Is the U.S. Actively Trying to Prolong the Syrian Civil War?
By Kevin Drum
[Obama’s goal] is to ensnare Iran and Hezbollah into a protracted, resource-draining civil war, with as minimal costs as possible. This is exactly what the last two years have accomplished…. at an appalling toll in lives lost.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35290.htm
The End of Syria as We Know It?
Why Obama is Declaring War on Syria
By Franklin Lamb
The short answer is Iran and Hezbollah according to Congressional sources. “The Syrian army’s victory at al-Qusayr was more than the administration could accept given that town’s strategic position in the region.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35291.htm
“There Will Be A Regional War”
US Decision to Arm Syria Rebels ‘Will be Greeted with Horror in Russia’:
Video Report
“Ultimately the US has decided the rebels must win, that means this is pretty much an opened ended commitment.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35278.htm
Western Military Intervention will Leave Syria in Permanent Ruins Say Two Former Nato Secretary Generals
By Javier Solana & Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
Rather than secure humanitarian space and empower a political transition, Western military engagement is likely to provoke further escalation on all sides, deepening the civil war.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35284.htm
Syria Protest (London) US Embassy 15 June
No Lifting of Arms Embargo
No Western Intervention
Only 24% of the UK public think the government should send arms to Syria.
Join the protest to say no to yet more war. More details…
Shaker Aamer: My Fight for Justice in Guantánamo
By Shaker Aamer
Killing innocent people for an idea, whether on London’s streets or from the skies of Pakistan, is always wrong.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35280.htm
Report from Yemen:What You’re Teaching Us is the Law of the Jungle.’
By Pam Bailey
Awda and her family traveled seven hours to Sana’a to see her father for the first time via video link. But she went home disappointed. Her hunger-striking father was so weak he was unable to talk.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35279.htm
Must Watch
Biden in 2006 Debates Obama in 2013 over NSA Spying Program
Video
Watch then-Senator Joe Biden from 2006 as he directly refutes each point made by his boss, President Obama, about the NSA surveillance program at his news conference last week.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35282.htm
James Clapper Must Go
By David Sirota
His attempts to mislead the nation — and absurd claims afterward — should get him fired and prosecuted.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35283.htm
Edward Snowden’s Worst Fear Has Not Been Realised – Thankfully
Glenn Greenwald
Edward Snowden told me he had only one fear. It was that the disclosures he was making, would fail to trigger a worldwide debate because the public had already been taught to accept that they have no right to privacy in the digital age.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35285.htm
My Creeping Concern That The NSA Leaker Is Not What He Purports To Be …
By Naomi Wolf
Consider that in Eastern Germany, for instance, it was the fear of a machine of surveillance that people believed watched them at all times – rather than the machine itself – that drove compliance and passivity.
Indefinite Detention Of Americans Survives House Vote
By Michael McAuliff
Supporters of detention argue that the nation needs to be able to arrest and jail suspected terrorists without trial, including Americans on U.S. soil, for as long as there is a war on terror.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35289.htm
Main Core:A Database Of Millions Of Americans Who Will Be Subject To Detention During Martial Law
By Michael Snyder
Are you on the list? Are you one of the millions of Americans that have been designated a threat to national security by the U.S. government?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35281.htm
Time to Buy a House? Not on Your Life!
By Mike Whitney
Soon the Foreclosure Floodgates Will Open and Prices Will Plunge.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35293.htm
26 Members of Congress to Live Off Food Stamp Budget to Protest Cuts
By Rebecca Leber
Could You Eat Off $4.50 a Day?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35286.htm
Afghanistan: 5 Taliban killed, 3 coalition forces injured in Wardak:
Five Taliban militants were killed and two coalition security forces were injured following clashes in central Maidan Wardak province of Afghanistan, local officials said.
Polish occupation force soldier killed by mine in Afghanistan:
Platoon leader Jan Kiepura, a Polish soldier serving in Afghanistan, was killed on Monday when a land mine exploded beneath the car he was in while on patrol near Ghazni, the capital of Ghanzi province.
Pakistan artillery shelling kill Afghan border police in Kandahar:
Pakistan fire missiles in AfghanistanAn Afghan border protection police officer was killed following cross-border shelling by Pakistan in southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan on Friday.
Syria: Assad troops launch heavy assault on Aleppo:
Syrian troops triggered the heaviest fighting seen in months in Aleppo, launching an assault with tanks and heavy artillery on a key eastern district that has been in rebel hands for almost a year.
Syrian Army Advances in Aleppo, Controls Rusafa Neighborhood in Deir Ezzor:
Violent clashes took place between the Syrian army and armed groups at the entrances of al-Sakhoor neighborhood of Aleppo, amid progress by the Syrian army in the area.
Syrian rebels pledge loyalty to al-Qaeda:
A Syrian rebel group’s April pledge of allegiance to al-Qaeda’s replacement for Osama bin Laden suggests that the terrorist group’s influence is not waning and that it may take a greater role in the Western-backed fight to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Syria: US chemical weapons charges ‘full of lies’:
“The United States is using cheap tactics to justify President Barack Obama’s decision to arm the Syrian opposition,” it said.
Russia says US claims of Syrian chemical arms use are ‘unconvincing’:
Mr Ushakov said at a briefing before Mr Putin’s trip to Northern Ireland for a G8 summit. “But I will say frankly that what was presented to us by the Americans does not look convincing.” “It would be hard even to call them facts,” said Mr Ushakov
Data on chemical arms use by Syria’s Assad fabricated: Russian MP:
“Information about the use by Assad of chemical weapons has been fabricated in the same place as the lies about (Saddam) Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction,” Alexei Pushkov, head of the foreign policy committee in the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, said on Twitter. “Obama is taking the same path as George Bush.”
Lap dog obeys master:
Britain backs US chemical weapons claims in Syria:
British Prime Minister David Cameron supported Whitehouse claims over the use of chemical weapons by Syrian government and said the two countries’ spying agencies have been sharing information.
U.N. Chief Opposes U.S. Military Support For Syrian Rebels:
“The United Nations, and in particular I, have been making it consistently clear that providing arms to either side would not address this current situation,”. “There is no such military solution.”
US plan to arm Syrian rebels receives cool reactions:
The international reaction Friday ranged from flat-out disbelief of the U.S. intelligence assessments to calls for negotiation before more weapons pour into the vicious civil war.
Germany won’t supply weapons to Syrian rebels:
Germany said Friday it had noted “with respect” the United States’ promise of military aid to the Syrian opposition but restated it would not deliver weapons to the conflict-ridden country itself.
Attempts to Arm Syria Rebels Prevent Conference – Russian FM:
“[The Syrian opposition’s] statement is that the conference is possible only when the military balance on the ground is restored,” Sergei Lavrov told journalists. “But if this criterion is taken into account, we will never convene that conference,” he said.
War criminal: Blair:
Arguments on Syria intervention ‘same as Iraq’:
The Middle East envoy said he believes Britain should help the US to arm Syrian rebels.
How long will it take for arms to reach rebels in Syria?
The US has already established lines of logistical support for the Supreme Military Council, headed by General Idriss, and we must assume that contingency plans for arming the rebels have been drawn up for many months.
White House says Syria no-fly zone would be costly, difficult: Video report:
The White House said on Friday that imposing a no-fly zone over Syria would be dramatically more difficult and costly than it was in Libya, stressing the United States does not have a national interest in pursuing that option. Mana Rabiee reports.
Syria: how Jordan could play a pivotal role in toppling Bashar al-Assad:
Details remain sketchy, but it is thought it would involve a limited no-fly zone extending 25 miles into Syria, enforced by US aircraft flown from Jordanian bases.
Assad: We are Preparing for Resistance in Golan:
Lebanese officials visiting Syria told Lebanese paper Al Akhbar that Assad has a long term plan in Golan similar to what the Islamic resistance in Lebanon had achieved in the South. This would include, according to Assad, a continued struggle against Israel.
Ban terms Israeli settlement illegal:
UN chief terms proposed building of 1,000 homes in two occupied West Bank settlements ‘violation of international law’.
Another Iraq candidate killed before provincial polls:
An Arab candidate in Iraqi provincial elections due next week has been shot dead as he left Friday prayers in the main northern city of Mosul, officials said. Muhanad Ghazi was gunned down as he walked home from the mosque in east Mosul.
Moderate cleric Rohani leading in Iran elections – Interior Minister:
Iran’s presidential elections have yielded preliminary results, with moderate cleric Hassan Rohani running ahead of Tehran’s Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf by nearly 300,000 votes, and nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, who is just behind Qalibaf.
Two killed in shooting at Sirte University in Libya:
At least two people were killed and six injured in a shooting at the University of Sirte, the hometown of Col. Gaddafi in northern Libya, a university source reported.
Libyan army brigade says unit’s colonel killed in ambush in south:
A Libyan army colonel was killed in an ambush on his brigade in the country’s south on Friday, the unit’s spokesman said, in the latest incident of violence in the North African country.
UN peacekeeper killed in shelling of Sudan base: spokesman:
Shells hit a United Nations base in Sudan’s troubled South Kordofan state on Friday, killing one peacekeeper and wounding two more, a UN spokesman said.
UK: Increasing number of asylum detainees freed after near-fatal hunger strikes:
Four men released from Harmondsworth detention centre where up to 17 inmates were starving themselves last month.
Thomas Drake: Snowden saw what I saw: surveillance criminally subverting the constitution: Op-Ed:
So we refused to be part of the NSA’s dark blanket. That is why whistleblowers pay the price for being the backstop of democracy
NEW TIME POLL: Support for the Leaker-and His Prosecution:
More than half of Americans approve of a former intelligence contractor’s decision to leak classified details of sprawling government surveillance programs, according to the results of a new TIME poll.
Britain tells airlines to keep Snowden off UK-bound flights:
The British government has warned airlines around the world not to allow Edward Snowden onto flights to Britain, marking the first official measure to target him even though he has yet to be charged with any crime and no warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Is Obama Starting A War With Syria Just To Distract Us From All The Scandals?:
At the moment when the Obama administration is feeling more heat then ever before, it starts another war. Suddenly everyone in the mainstream media is talking all about Syria and not about the IRS scandal, Benghazi, NSA snooping or any of the other political scandals that have popped up in recent weeks.
From the archives: : NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls: 05/11/06 –
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.
Welcome to Utah, the NSA’s desert home for eavesdropping on America:
The $1.7bn facility, two years in the making, will soon host supercomputers to store gargantuan quantities of data from emails, phone calls, Google searches and other sources. It will employ around 200 technicians, span 1m sq ft and use 65 megawatts of power.
Rand Paul: Every cell phone likely tracked:
The Kentucky Republican senator said Thursday afternoon that he suspects the United States government is collecting data from every cell phone in America.
Facebook releases government surveillance data:
Facebook said that it received between 9,000 and 10,000 requests for user data in the second half of 2012, covering 18,000 to 19,000 of its users’ accounts.
Americans’ Confidence in Congress Falls to Lowest on Record:
Congress ranks last on list of 16 institutions; military earns top spot again
Miss me yet? Polls shows Americans like Bush again:
The favorability rating of George W. Bush has skyrocketed, with 49 percent of Americans expressing positive feelings toward the former US president and only 46 percent expressing dislike.
Police Trained to Treat Keystone XL Protesters as ‘Terrorists’ (View TransCanada’s PowerPoints):
These slides revealed that TransCanada provided training to both federal and local police forces on how to crack down on environmental activists, even going so far as to train them to arrest the activists under anti-terrorism statutes.
IMF criticises US spending cuts:
Fund warns country still faces downside risks to its recovery and urges Congress to severe ‘sequester’ budget cuts.
Cost Of War
Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered In US War And Occupation Of Iraq “1,455,590“
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America’s War On Iraq: 4,883
Number Of International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 3,335
Cost of War in Iraq & Afghanistan
Total Cost of Wars Since 2001
$1,447,784,042,376
The New Dark Age 