Fukushima’s Catastrophic Aftermath Continues

by Stephen Lendman

Dr. Rosalie Bertell: If anything she underestimated the urgency of the threat.

In her book titled “No Immediate Danger: Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth,” nuclear power/environmental health expert Rosalie Bertell (1929 – 2012) said:

“Should the public discover the true health cost(s) of nuclear pollution, a cry would rise from all parts of the world and people would refuse to cooperate passively with their own death.” In her article titled “Radioactivity: No Immediate Danger,” she coined a new word. “Omnicide” describes the ultimate human rejection of life. It’s “difficult to comprehend,” but it’s happening, she said.

She called industrial radioactive pollution “cumulatively greater than Chernobyl. We are now in a no-win situation with radioactive materials, where (it’s) acceptable to have cancer deaths, deformed children and miscarriages.”

Industry propaganda falsely claims nuclear power is clean and green. The nuclear fuel cycle discharges significant amounts of greenhouse gases. It’s also responsible for hundreds of thousands of curies of deadly radioactive gases and elements in the environment annually.

“Claiming nuclear production of energy is ‘clean,’ ” said Bertell, “is like dieting but stuffing yourself with food between meals.” Separately, she said:

“There is no such thing as a radiation exposure that will not do damage. There is a hundred per cent possibility that there will be damage to cells. The next question is: which damage do you care about?”

All toxic hazards are serious, she explained. Nuclear radiation is worst of all. It threatens all human life. “Our present path is headed toward species death – whether fast with nuclear war or technological disaster, or slow, by poison.”

Global suicide is certain. Continued nuclear proliferation and Fukushima accelerated it.

March 11 marked its second anniversary. It’s perhaps the worst ever environmental disaster. Reliable experts call large parts of Japan unsafe. They’re too hazardous to live in. According to Professor Hiroaki Koide, Tokyo’s as contaminated as Fukushima. Thousands of city residents protested. They oppose nuclear power. They want safe energy sources replacing it.

Radiation contamination is widespread. East Asia, North America, Europe and other areas are affected.

Hazardous air, water and land readings across many areas globally are many multiples too high. Future epidemic cancer levels are certain. It occurs when body cells divide and spread uncontrollably. If untreated, it metastasizes and kills.

Michel Chossudovsky calls Fukushima “a nuclear war without a war.” It’s an “unspoken crisis of worldwide nuclear contamination.”

Tens of thousands of children have confirmed thyroid abnormalities. They reflect the tip of the iceberg. Children are especially vulnerable. No radiation dose is safe. Karl Grossman wants planet earth made a “nuclear free zone.” We barely made it through the last century without a “major nuclear weapons exchange,” he said.

Admiral Rickover: He saw the ugly downside of nuclear power clearly enough.

Nuclear energy in all forms is unsafe. Safe, clean, renewable solar, wind, geothermal, and other energy sources are readily available. Admiral Hyman Rickover (1900 – 1986) was the father of America’s nuclear navy. In January 1982, he told a congressional committee that until a few billion years ago, “it was impossible to have any life on earth.”

“There was so much radiation on earth you couldn’t have any life, fish or anything.” Gradually the amount subsided. “Now, we are creating something which nature tried to destroy to make life possible.”

“Every time you produce radiation, (a) horrible force” is unleashed. “In some cases (it’s) for billions of years, and I think the human race is going to wreck itself.”

“I am talking about humanity. The most important thing we could do is start having an international meeting where we first outlaw nuclear weapons to start off with. Then we outlaw nuclear reactors, too.”

“The lesson for history is when a war starts, every nation will ultimately use whatever weapons are available. That is the lesson learned time and again.” ”

“Therefore, we must expect, if another war, a serious war breaks out, we will use nuclear energy in some form. We will probably destroy ourselves.” Widespread contamination acts in slow motion.

Disturbing reports explain. In early April, around 120 tons of contaminated water leaked from Fukushima’s No. 1’s underground storage tank. It contained an estimated 710 billion becquerels of radioactivity.

Water around the affected tank is highly radioactive. It’s about 800 meters from the Pacific. Government and Tokyo Electric (Tepco) claimed it won’t likely reach it. Numerous previous reports suggest otherwise.

Tepco general manager Masayuki Ono said “(w)e cannot deny the fact that our faith in the underwater tanks is being lost.”

In November 2012, Nature.com headlined “Ocean still suffering from Fukushima fallout,” saying:

“Radioactivity is persisting in the ocean waters close to Japan’s ruined nuclear power plant at Fukushima Daiichi.” New data show high contamination levels. “The Fukushima disaster caused by far the largest discharge of radioactivity into the ocean ever seen.”

Radiation levels aren’t dropping. “The implications are serious for the fishing industry.” On December 26, CleanEnergy.org headlined “Japan Continues Struggle with Aftermath from the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster,” saying:

“….an estimated 160,000 (Japanese) citizens still have not returned home. Reports of illness in humans and livestock continue to underscore the far reaching and difficult to predict impacts that a nuclear accident can cause.”

In July 2012, 36% of Japanese children screened had abnormal thyroid growths. Months later an illness called the “Fukushima syndrome” was killing cattle throughout Fukushima Prefecture.

Mutations were found in butterflies and other insects. Their shorter life cycles allow genetic disruptions to show up sooner than in humans or other mammals.

On April 11, Bloomberg.com headlined “Tepco Faces Decision to Dump Radioactive Water in Pacific,” saying:

“Leaks were found in three of seven pits in the past week….” Options for moving contaminated water are limited. “With Japan’s rainy season approaching, contaminated water levels are likely to increase…”

“Yesterday, Tepco reported another leak of radiated water, this time from a pipe… Pacific bluefin tuna caught off San Diego in August 2011 was found to contain radioactive cesium 10 times higher than fish seized in previous years….” Perhaps its much higher now.

On April 15, Science Daily headlined “The Fukushima Dai-Ichi Power Plant Accident: Two Years On, the Fallout Continues,” saying:

“….(S)cientists are still trying to quantify the extent of the damage.” Most important is “determining just how much hazardous material escaped into the atmosphere….”

Japan Atomic Energy Agency researchers now say previously estimated “137C and 131l” release rates were too low.

On March 11, 2013, nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen said “(t)here’s definitely a large crack, perhaps five inches in diameter, in Fukushima reactor 2.” Containment is sorely lacking. Pacific Ocean leakage continues.

On April 24, Natural News headlined “Massive, uncontained leak at Fukushima is pouring over 710 billion becquerels of radioactive materials into atmosphere,” saying:

It’s the largest ever plant leakage. Fukushima’s disaster never ends. It “keeps on giving.”

“(N)ew reports indicate that a wealth of new radioactive materials have been spewed into the atmosphere.”

It’s spreading globally. Nuclear radiation is forever. It doesn’t dissipate or disappear. No safe level exists. Every dose is an overdose. Bertell was right. “Omnicide” threatens everyone.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached atlendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is titled “Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.” http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html || Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour

Chronicles of Inequality [TOO MUCH, 29 April 2013]

	April 29, 2013
THIS WEEK
Ed Stack, the CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods, has a rather unique claim to fame. A few years back, Stack invented “the stupid list.” He asked his managers and employees to list the three things Dick’s does “that make no sense.”We have a suggestion for the Dick’s “stupid list”: the windfalls Dick’s is stuffing into the pockets of Ed Stack. In 2012, news reports last week informed us, CEO Stack grabbed an astonishing $137 million cashing out stock options, on top of $10.7 million in his regular annual compensation.How much more did Stack take home last year than his workers? We don’t know. Under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, firms like Dick’s must reveal the gap between their CEO and median worker pay. But the federal Securities and Exchange Commission has so far made no move to enforce the Dodd-Frank mandate.Two dozen national citizen groups have just asked the new SEC chair, Mary Jo White, to stop the foot-dragging and start requiring CEO-worker pay disclosure. We need her to listen. More on the reasons why in this week’s Too Much.	About Too Much, a project of the Institute for Policy StudiesProgram on Inequality and the Common Good Subscribe to Too MuchJoin us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter
GREED AT A GLANCE
America’s fourth- and ninth-biggest dailies, the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, may soon become the property of Koch Industries, the privately held corporation that fuels the fortune of America’s two most notorious right-wing billionaires, Charles and David Koch. The two papers stand as the crown jewels of an eight-daily chain that also includes high-profile papers in Baltimore and Orlando. The likely cost of the total package: $623 million, pocket change for the Koch brothers. Their personal net worths now total, Bloomberg estimates, $45 billion each. A Koch Industries flack is telling reporters that the Kochs would not meddle with the “independence” of any media that might fall into the Koch camp. But a new Columbia Journalism Review analysis of a media property already under Koch control shows a tendency to “blur reporting and opinion.•••• ”Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman has spent billions the last few years buying up heavy equipment rivals. But that buy-up spree hasn’t juiced up company earnings. So Oberhelman has tried squeezing a closer-to-home asset: his workers. He threw 700 employees out of work at a Cat plant in Canada after workers there rejected a 50 percent wage cut. Then, charges the United Steelworkers, Oberhelman bullied 800 workers at an Illinois plant into major pay concessions. In Wisconsin, the company threatened to axe 40 percent of one plant’s workforce just days before bargaining began on a new contract. Oberhelman’s strategy appears to be working — for Oberhelman. His take-home last year jumped by $5.5 million. Oberhelman’s 2012 $22.4 million, Caterpillar noted last week,reflects the company’s “pay-for-performance philosophy.” Cara David, the top marketing exec at American Express, has some great news to report — for the businesses that service America’s rich. The latest AmexSurvey of Affluence and Wealth in America, co-authored with the Harrison Group,is estimating that luxury sales will grow 3.4 percent this year, over twice the growth forecast for national GDP. America’s top 1 percent, says David, have maneuvered themselves into “a better position to spend on luxury.” Gushes Harrison’s Jim Taylor: “Lessons learned from the recession — resourcefulness, self-reliance, and a deep sense of financial responsibility — continue to dominate purchasing strategies in the country’s most successful households.”	Quote of the Week “We used to be a country with a rich heart. Now we’re the land of the heartless rich.” Pam Martens, Koch Brothers’ Wealth Grew By $33 Billion . . . as America’s Schools Report 1 Million Homeless Kids,Wall Street on Parade, April 24, 2013
PETULANT PLUTOCRAT OF THE WEEK
Mark Bertolini, the CEO at health insurer giant Aetna, has been loudly warning Americans to beware next January 1, the date Obamacare finally goes into near full effect. Consumers, says Bertolini, will be facing “rate shock” when they see how much their insurance premiums are going to be costing. But he’s not saying why. Aetna and other insurers, industry whistle-blower Wendell Potter points out, have been making big bucks selling low-premium policies that lead consumers to believe they’re buying much more coverage than they actually get. Obamacare bans this “junk insurance,” and firms like Aetna will have to offer policies that provide real coverage. Expect Aetna to charge dearly for these policies. How else will the insurer be able to continue paying Bertolini his going rate? He pulled in a sweet $36.4 million last year.	Share Too Much with your friends! They can sign up here to have Too Muchdelivered to their inboxes every Monday afternoon.
PROGRESS AND PROMISE
Know Where Your Premiums Are Going? Only one state in America, Vermont, has so far moved to shove giant health insurers and their lavishly paid execs out of their central role in the nation’s health care. Vermont lawmakers two years ago passed legislation that puts the state on track to creating a “single-payer” health care system. But single-payer remains years away. In the meantime, Vermont is moving to up the heat on health insurer CEOs. State legislation enacted last year requires insurers to reveal to consumers exactly how much they spend on lobbying and advertising, how often they deny consumer claims, and how much they pay their CEOs.	Take Action on InequalityUrge your rep in Congress to back the Inclusive Prosperity Act, the new bill that would set a financial transactions tax on Wall Street speculation. More at the Robin Hood campaign.
IMAGES OF INEQUALITY
•••• The property in London’s 10 most exclusive boroughs, we learned earlier this year, now holds more value than all the property combined in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Insatiable global billionaire demand for London addresses now appears poised to drive that gap even wider. The second largest manse in London has just gone on the market for £250 million, about $382 million. The sale, if completed at the asking price, will make the “palatial Regency mansion” at 18 Carlton House Terrace the developed world’s most expensive abode.	Web Gem Global Rich List/ See where you rate in the worldwide distribution of income.
INEQUALITY BY THE NUMBERS
	Stat of the Week In the world’s top four financial hubs — New York, London, Hong Kong, and Singapore — over 300 residential properties sold for over $15.5 million in 2012, says a new report co-produced by Deutsche Bank. The total outlay for the 300 properties: over $10 billion, for an average over $33 million each.
IN FOCUS
From a Sloppy Spreadsheet, an Eternal TruthIf we let wealth continue to concentrate — and corrupt every element of our contemporary societies — we’ll all end up crying ’96 tears.’ Aging baby boomers may remember, from way back in 1966, a one-hit-wonder rock band that sported an all-time great of a name. That band — Question Mark and the Mysterians — may now have a worthy rival on the name front. Make way for Reinhart-Rogoff and the Austerians. Harvard economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff don’t make smash records. They write learned economic papers that make austerians happy — and help smash the life prospects of average working families. Austerians preach the absolute necessity of whacking away at government spending for public services. We must, these champions of austerity solemnly intone, discipline ourselves to reduce government deficit and debt, no matter the pain austerity may bring us. And austerity does bring pain. People lose access to basic services. People lose jobs. People even go hungry. But some people — extremely affluent people — don’t mind austerity at all. These affluents don’t send their kids to public schools. They don’t spend weekend afternoons at public parks. They never step aboard public transit. These wealthy don’t need public services and resent having to pay taxes to support them. Austerity works for these affluents. Cutbacks in public services won’t, by and large, bring any discomfort to their daily lives. And if austerity should create some unanticipated discomfort, they can always get their friends in high places to intervene — as Americans saw last week when lawmakers rushed to undo recent austerity cutbacks in the Federal Aviation Administration budget that had affluent people cooling their heels in airports. Austerity cutbacks, notes Center for Economic and Policy Research economist Dean Baker, promise even greater payoffs — for the rich — down the road. The austerity push for cuts in programs like Social Security, he points out, “opens the door for lowering tax rates on the wealthy in the future.” “If these sorts of social commitments can be reduced,” Baker writes, “then the wealthy can look forward to being able to keep more of their income.” All this may help explain why pollsters have found, as economist Paul Krugmanpointed out last Friday, that wealthy Americans “by a large majority” consider budget deficits “the most important problem we face.” America’s wealthy make their personal predilection for austerity equally plain to the politicians who seek their favor. These pols, for their part, want to be helpful to their deep-pocketed patrons. But these pols, Dean Baker reminds us, also have needs of their own. They need “evidence” they can use to show the general public that “austerity serves the general good and not just the rich.” Three years ago, Harvard’s Reinhart and Rogoff supplied that “evidence,” via an academic paper that purported to show a clear and imminent danger whenever government debt hits a particular percent of Gross Domestic Product. This Reinhart-Rogoff paper rushed to the “top of the charts,” in elite public policy circles. Austerians worldwide waved the paper at every opportunity. They cited Reinhart and Rogoff’s work as an unassailable justification for cutting government spending quick and cutting government spending deep. Reinhart and Rogoff made no meaningful move to discourage the austerians. They basked instead in their global celebrity — until earlier this month when a team of unorthodox economists at the University of Massachusetts exposed the Reinhart-Rogoff paper as essentially a sloppy scholarly fraud. This Massachusetts work quickly went viral. By last week, Reinhart and Rogoff’s Excel spreadsheet errors had become fodder for late-night TV comics. End of story? Not quite. We have much more here than a spectacularly failed attempt to make the case for a doctrine that suits the sensibilities of the richest among us. We have powerful proof that inequality corrupts every corner of contemporary societies, even — and especially — our ivory towers. The academic peers of Reinhart and Rogoff, the scholars who hold the nation’s most prestigious endowed chairs in economics, never once made any effort to check out the Harvard pair’s findings. The unraveling of their bogus case for austerity started with the digging of a skeptical grad student. Like this article? Sign up to receive the Too Muchweekly in your email inbox. The lesson in all this? In a staggeringly unequal society, as Paul Krugman summed up last week, “what the top 1 percent wants becomes what economic science says we must do.” The rest of us, of course, don’t have to listen, on austerity or any other front.	New Wisdom on WealthMichael Peppard, Plutocracy in action: the FAA vs. National Parks, Commonweal, April 26, 2013. Gridlock in Congress magically ends — when the affluent squeal.Sean Reardon, No Rich Child Left Behind, New York Times, April 28, 2013. A Stanford sociologist explains why rising income inequality needs to take center stage in debates over our education future. Find out more about Too Much editor Sam Pizzigati’snew book, The Rich Don’t Always Win: The Forgotten Triumph over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970.
NEW AND NOTABLE
Why Mitt Lost: The Role Inequality PlayedLarry Bartels, The Class War Gets Personal: Inequality as a Political Issue in the 2012 Election, NYU Law School Colloquium on Tax Policy and Public Finance, April 23, 2013.Vanderbilt political scientist Larry Bartels has written widely and wisely about inequality over recent years. Last week, he presented this new analysis of the impact of inequality on the 2012 election, a study based in significant part on specially commissioned survey data. His basic finding: Mitt Romney owes his 2012 defeat to a “widespread public perception that he cared more about wealthy people like himself than about poor and middle-class Americans.”	Like Too Much? Email this issue to a friend

Barackodile Tears

Rainbows for the Ruling Class

The elevation of Obama to the highest office has prompted a veritable flourishing of unprincipled, opportunistic African Americans. Lisa L. Williams is typical of this morally squalid lot.

by Randy Shields

One of the great things about America is that it’s easy to be psychic here. This is the land of psychic opportunity. Anyone can hang out a shingle and predict the future. Anyone can read a palm that’s greased. If you want to know what’s going to happen next in America, all you have to do is ask yourself: what’s the most outrageous, ironic, perverted and soul-crushing thing that can happen in any given situation? Whatever that thing is, that’s what will happen. And you won’t have to wait long to see your prediction come true.

So it was that last week San Francisco Pride announced that jailed war crimes whistle blower Bradley Manning would be an honorary grand marshal for this year’s LGBT Pride Celebration.

Before practically anyone had a chance to note how principled and inspiring Manning’s selection was, the decision was rescinded. Kevin Gosztola at firedoglake has an excellent overview and Glenn Greenwald has a list of all the corporate criminals that SF Pride takes money from and doesn’t find objectionable.

[pullquote]By exposing war crimes, Manning was actually doing his duty and nothing he did put the lives of American troops in danger. He caused embarrassment to the American empire because he showed that war crimes are routine. Everyone who raised hell with SF Pride’s original decision doesn’t, and can’t, name one instance of Manning putting a soldier’s life in danger because there weren’t any.[/pullquote]

Most interesting to me was the slavish worship of authority in SF Pride president Lisa L. Williams statement announcing that Manning would not be an honorary grand marshal: “Bradley Manning is facing the military justice system of this country. We all await the decision of that system. However, until that time, even the hint of support for actions which placed in harms way the lives of our men and women in uniform — and countless others, military and civilian alike — will not be tolerated by the leadership of San Francisco Pride. It is, and would be, an insult to every one, gay and straight, who has ever served in the military of this country.”

This is the same military “justice” system that gives out free passes and wrist slaps to the torturers of Abu Ghraib and the rapists and murderers of the children of Haditha, Iraq. The same system of “justice” that discourages female soldiers from reporting rape — and not a handful but the 20,000 servicewomen that even the Pentagon estimates are sexually assaulted every year, as noted in the 2012 Oscar-nominated documentary Invisible War. So, yes, Ms. Williams, we eagerly await what the mass murdering rape-friendly torture enterprise has to say about a brave young person who blew the whistle on its crimes.

By exposing war crimes, Manning was actually doing his duty and nothing he did put the lives of American troops in danger. He caused embarrassment to the American empire because he showed that war crimes are routine. Everyone who raised hell with SF Pride’s original decision doesn’t, and can’t, name one instance of Manning putting a soldier’s life in danger because there weren’t any. If anything, Manning helped hasten the departure of America from Iraq and saved US soldiers’ lives. When the working class finally vanquishes the capitalist class, there will be monuments built to Manning — and molded clear plastic Bush and Obama heads used as urinals in hospitals. When you’re admitted to the hospital, a nurse will ask, similar to paper or plastic: “Democrat or Republican?” (After the revolution, hospitals are gonna be fun places that keep peoples’ spirits up.)
[pullquote]The dead end identity politics of SF Pride, which sells out a peace hero like Bradley Manning to curry favor with the American ruling class, is what I had in mind. The empire loves your tameness, irrelevance and cowardice, SF Pride. You don’t bother the American ruling class — a five foot two, 105 pound soldier does because he has a conscience and because he didn’t make comfort the guiding principle of his life.[/pullquote]

When reading Williams’ statement, keep in mind what Manning did: he made available to WikiLeaks an on-board video of American helicopter gunners mowing down two Reuters news staffers and several Iraqi civilians, including children and first responders and then joking about it. WikiLeaks released thefilm almost three years after the crime occurred. SF Pride is more incensed at Manning for exposing this atrocity than the commission of it. What wonderful Barackodile tears Williams cries for the “civilians” that she falsely implies that Manning ever put in danger. How repulsive can you get? (Barackodile tears are tears shed by America’s historic first black president about dead, generally white, children gunned down in massacres while he simultaneously murders brown-skinned children in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, etc.)

Last week I wrote about unclassconscious people wandering around nowhere and in emptiness and mistakenly believing that they’re on the “left.” I called them desolationists. The dead end identity politics of SF Pride, which sells out a peace hero like Bradley Manning to curry favor with the American ruling class, is what I had in mind. The empire loves your tameness, irrelevance and cowardice, SF Pride. You don’t bother the American ruling class — a five foot two, 105 pound soldier does because he has a conscience and because he didn’t make comfort the guiding principle of his life. He went against the most powerful force on earth, the American military, and knew that he would pay an annihilating price for it. That’s why so many soldiers are so venomous toward Manning — he’s got much more courage and honor than they do and they know it. Pro-Manning comments are trouncing anti-Manning comments in online LGBT publications like Washington, DC’s Metro Weekly and the San Diego LGBT Weekly. So who, exactly, is Ms. Williams representing? Perhaps the Whitey House because, according to her bio, Williams “organized satellite offices for the Obama campaign.”

The American empire, its resource wars and racist occupations, the blowback it provokes and the inevitable reduction in civil liberties — these aren’t “issues” that have “two sides.” Congratulations, SF Pride, you’re totally assimilated with the America that is fearful and timid, the America that glorifies authority and welcomes fascism, as we just saw in Boston. Maybe you’ll feel better when a gay soldier’s boot is on your throat and you’re hearing them assert their equality: “I’m just doing my job. I’m just following orders.” Perhaps SF Pride will go all the way and appoint a gay soldier critical of Manning as the Grand Martial Law Marshal.

It would be awesome if thousands of participants at this year’s June 29-30 Pride Celebration wore Bradley Manning masks and kicked in a dollar each to his defense fund. SF Pride needs repudiated in a big way. And now I feel a psychic vision coming on: if SF Pride knew that thousands of participants were going to wear Bradley Manning masks, they would ban all masks for “everyone’s security.” They would say that they must be able to identify everyone and that they have a responsibility to keep everyone “safe” — they, like most Americans, just don’t feel any responsibility about stopping their representative government from slaughtering innocent Muslims. Up against the wall, turn your head and cough — and have a great time. And don’t ever forget: constantly bombing people keeps you free and safe. Can’t you feel the freedom closing in around you?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Randy Shields can be reached at music2hi4thehumanear@gmail.com.Read other articles by Randy, or visit Randy’s website.

STEPHEN LENDMAN: US False Flag Pretext for War on Syria

Editor’s Note: Here’s the sanctimonious claptrap being distributed by the American media to the perennially clueless American public (this version courtesy of the Wall Street Journal) as they tighten the noose around the Syrian regime’s neck. As always, American officialdom’s hypocrisy beats just about any emetic on the market—PG

By JAY SOLOMON, WSJ

WASHINGTON—Republicans and Democrats pressed President Barack Obama on Sunday to do more to intervene and stop the civil war in Syria, citing a U.S. intelligence report released last week that concluded President Bashar al-Assad used small amounts of chemical weapons against his opponents.

But leading lawmakers, including Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), also uniformly stressed on Sunday talk shows that they didn’t believe the U.S. should send American troops into Syria to confront Mr. Assad. Both lawmakers and the Obama administration are wary about U.S. involvement in another conflict in the Middle East after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr. McCain argued that the U.S. should instead support a no-fly zone in Syria to protect civilians and rebels from Mr. Assad’s forces. Other lawmakers called for significantly more humanitarian aid.

“We have said that they need a no-fly zone, which could be obtained without using U.S.-manned aircraft,” said Mr. McCain, a sharp critic of Mr. Obama’s Syria policy, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We could use Patriot batteries and cruise missiles to take out their air and to supply…the resistance with weapons.”

He said he didn’t want American “boots on the ground” but said that the international community should “be prepared with an international force to go in and secure these stocks of chemical and perhaps biological weapons.”

Rep. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.) said on the same show: “I believe the United States could play a greater role in dealing with the humanitarian crisis…I don’t think the world’s greatest superpower, the United States, can stand by and not do anything.”

Obama abhors peace. He prioritizes war. His appetite exceeds his predecessors and then some. It’s insatiable. He’s currently waging multiple direct and proxy wars. He plans more in Africa. He destroyed Libya. He’s ravaging Syria.

Read the Stephen Lendman piece on next page.

US False Flag Pretext for War on Syria

By Stephen Lendman

UK Daily Mail headlined “US ‘backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad’s regime,’ ” saying:

“Leaked emails have allegedly proved that the White House gave the green light to a chemical weapons attack in Syria that could be blamed on Assad’s regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country.”

“A report released on Monday contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence where a scheme ‘approved by Washington’ is outlined explaining that Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons.”

“Barack Obama made it clear to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that the U.S would not tolerate Syria using chemical weapons against its own people.”

“It reads: ‘Phil….We’ve got a new offer. It’s about Syria again. Qataris propose an attractive deal and swear that the idea is approved by Washington…’We’ll have to deliver a CW to Homs, a Soviet origin g-shell from Libya similar to those that Assad should have.’ ”

” ‘They want us to deploy our Ukrainian personnel that should speak Russian and make a video record.’ ”

” ‘Frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea but the sums proposed are enormous. Your opinion?’ ”

” ‘Kind regards, David.’ ”

“The emails were released by a Malaysian hacker who also obtained senior executives resumes and copies of passports via an unprotected company server, according to Cyber War News.”

“Dave Goulding’s Linkedin profile lists him as Business Development Director at Britam Defence Ltd in Security and Investigations.”

“A business networking profile for Phil Doughty lists him as Chief Operationg Officer for Britam, United Arab Emirates, Security and Investigations.”

“The US State Department had not returned a request for comment on the alleged emails to MailOnline today at time of publication.”

On January 30, Voice of Russia headlined “Britam tells VoR it was hacked,” saying:

It denied involvement “in a plot to destabilise Syria.” Red Hot Russia quoted a “software systems administrator” using the nickname “KungFu Spider,” saying:

“After looking at the email headers….I have to admit that the email does indeed look genuine.”

“The email was sent from ‘81.156.163.12’ which is a BT Wholesale ADSL IP address.”

“From there it was then relayed via ‘smtp.clients.netdns.net (202.157.148.149).”

“Finally it was delivered to a local mailbox on that server.

I hate to admit it, but all these facts check out. So with Mythbusters objectivity I have to call this one plausible…I just hope I don’t get a visit from the plods for this ill advised sleuthing.”

Last summer, Obama warned:

“We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.”

That would change my calculus. That would change my equation…We’re monitoring that situation very carefully. We have put together a range of contingency plans.”

They include full-scale US intervention. Last March, a Brookings Institution report headlined “Saving Syria: Assessing Options for Regime Change.”

To “protect US interests,” it said, Assad can’t be allowed to triumph. Six options were proposed:

(1) diplomacy;
(2) coercion and diplomatic isolation;
(3) providing full support for opposition forces to oust him;
(4) a Libya-style air campaign;
(5) invasion “with US-led forces;” and
(6) a “multilateral, NATO-led (regime change) effort.”

On the one hand, it recommended giving diplomacy “one last chance.” On the other, it said it’s unlikely “diplomacy alone can resolve the crisis.”

It said Washington must intervene “to protect (its) many interests affected by the bloodshed of Syria.”

Russian politician Alexei Mitrofanov is a Duma Information Policy Committee member. Voice of Russia quoted him saying:

“Syria is facing a global info war. The masterminds of this war are doing everything they can to prevent information of Syrian official sources from leaking out.”

“(T)he truth about the Syrian conflict is different from the one presented by the western press.”

On April 28, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported Assad’s Permanent UN Representative, Bashar al-Jaafari saying “western countries are raising the issue of chemical weapons use in Syria is part of the campaign of pressure exerted on Syria in order to get concessions from it in various issues.”

“….Syria’s enemies fabricated various issues to pressure Syria’s but to no avail, and now they’re attempting to exploit the Security Council to recreate the Iraqi scenario, asserting that they will not succeed in these machinations because Syria has real friends in the Security Council, and because experts are presenting credible reports like the recent one which stated that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and the UAE are all involved in smuggling weapons into Syria.”

“….the media war of exaggeration against Syria seeks to poison the international and Arab public opinion by promoting an erroneous image of what is actually happening in Syria, affirming that the Syrian government isn’t killing its own people as some claim; rather it’s facing armed terrorist who commit suicide bombings in residential areas, murder students in schools and universities, and undermine the national economy’s infrastructure.”

Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said its military successes prompted false accusations about chemical weapons use. Russian Federation Council Deputy Chairman Ilyas Umakhanov suggested Moscow won’t leave Syria alone in its time of crisis, saying:

“Russia’s stance is that the Syrian people alone have the right to solve their problems without foreign interference.” The battle for Syria rages. Western propaganda continues. Joseph Holliday is an Institute for the Study of War (ISW) fellow and former senior research analyst. ISW calls itself “committed to improving the nation’s ability to execute military operations and respond to emerging threats in order to achieve US. strategic objectives.”

On April 26, Holliday’s Foreign Policy article headlined “Assad’s Chemical Romance,” saying:

“….the Syrian dictator’s cynical and clever chemical weapons strategy outfoxed Obama.”

“The Syrian regime’s subtle approach deliberately offers the Obama administration the option to remain quiet about chemical attacks and thereby avoid the obligation to make good on its threats.”

“But even more worrying, Assad’s limited use of chemical weapons is intended to desensitize the United States and the international community in order to facilitate a more comprehensive deployment in the future – without triggering intervention.”

Holliday appears to be goading Obama to intervene. He claimed previous Assad chemical weapons use. Repeating lies often enough get people to believe them. He said Assad “established a clear modus operandi for ramping up the battle without triggering international intervention: toe the line, confirm Western inaction, and then ratchet up the violence further.”

He made numerous false accusations. Assad’s “introduction of weapons of mass destruction intends to pave the way for more lethal and wide-ranging chemical attacks against the Syrian people in the future,” he claimed. Obama said “he’ll need a big, smoking gun to push him into taking on the responsibility of a decisive US response.”

“Unfortunately, the wily Assad doesn’t seem likely to give (him) such an easy decision.” False flags and misinformation make it easier. On April 28, Haaretz headlined “Defected Syrian general claims he was ordered to use chemical weapons,” saying:

On March 15, Zakir al-Sakit defected. He claims superiors told him to use chemical weapons against “rebels” and civilians in Busra al-Harir. It’s about 90 km south of Damascus. Expect defectors to say anything. Perhaps al-Harir was well-rewarded. His accusation lacks credibility.

He said he instructed his forces to use a harmless liquid. Haaretz cited opposition Syria National Coalition officials claiming Syrian forces fired “missiles with chemical arms” near Damascus.

Expect these type reports to continue. Obama appears heading for more war. Expect Syria to become another US charnel house. American-style humanitarian interventions turn out that way.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour

http://www.dailycensored.com/us-false-flag-pretext-for-war-on-syria/

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